Their Savior, Frisk
by The Vampire Avatar
Summary: After Frisk dies to save their friends, their life goes back to normal with no memory of what happened. But with these dreams, these monsters appearing, they realize that their life isn't so dull. With war about to break out against the monsters and humans, can Frisk find a way to save everybody again before it's too late? Or will a war break out between the species once again?
1. The One where Monsters Show Up

" _This all sort of just ends for me soon," a child sighed to a silhouette next to them. Their shape was almost cut out of the picture, as if nobody was meant to fully see them. The two, minus the shadow not fully able to describe, sat side by side._

" _Hey," the shadow nervously chuckled. Despite not being visible, they were still audible. The dream went fuzzy for a minute, causing the words to be scrambled, and a few words were cut off. "...nothing left to worry about."_

 _More static._

 _The child came back into view after a few seconds, seeming rather calm about something, whatever it was the two were talking about. The shadow didn't however, and even with not being able to see their facial expression, one could tell that they were upset about what the other was calm about._

" _You feelin' alright?" The figure reached out and grabbed the visible one's shoulder, almost making her phase out of visibility. The figure opened it's mouth to say something, but nothing came out, despite their mouth clearly forming a word._

 _The edges blurred a bit, the scene jumping a bit._

 _The child was now standing with their back to the ledge of, what appeared to be, a cliff. The sun was setting behind them. The other figure, now stood as well. He was almost completely out of the range of visibility and was hard to see at all. The child just watched with a small grin, happy about something._

 _Edges blurred and the static became unbearable. The background dripped out of color, then out of existence as the child backed towards the edge of the cliff. All that was left were the child and the figure._

 _The girl took a step back, off the edge._

 _A shot of white reached out towards the human._

Tiny hands clenched the sheets underneath them tightly, sweat covered their palms and spreading small droplets to the cloth. The fingers continuously clenched and unclenched with small grunts filling the air. Eventually, the fingers, hands, and the entire body the appendages belonged to, began to shake with words becoming louder.

The small child in the huge bed panted for a bit and looked out their window. Well…That wasn't quite right. It wasn't their window. It belonged to the child's mother, who, not surprisingly, hadn't showed up tonight. The child wasn't in their bed either, they were in their mother's, waiting for her to come home.

The mom usually was home by the time the hands met together at the top of the clock, but tonight, she wasn't.

The small child climbed down and hopped out of bed. They looked over at the big window next to the bed and sighed, putting their head against the window. A bright light was shining from their neighbor's porch light. They always had decorated their light bulbs by coloring them and today's color was blue. It was almost close enough to what the child had saw that they couldn't resist.

With a deep breath, they blew onto the glass to give it the foggy appeal that was fun to draw on. With the fog slowly covering the window, the child stepped back and began their work, making sure that the light was in the right spot.

Tracing the now fogged class with their finger, Frisk tried to remember what their nightmare was. The way that the edges danced around and things were almost censored from them gave them a weird feeling. Almost like they were suppose to guess what was going on. But how could they? Everything was kept secret. The child couldn't even see what the other people in the dreams looked like!

The child continued to trace what they saw onto the window.

Tonight's dream was different from everything else though. Tonight, they had a glimpse of the shadowy figure that appeared a lot in their dreams. There were quite a few shadows, but none were ever visible. Also, all of them would say a word that was clearly spoken, just not audible to the child. It bothered them the most because if it were a clue on what all of this meant, they wouldn't ever be able to figure it out.

As they finished the masterpiece, they stepped back from the window to take a look at it. A small smile of approval appeared on their face. But after a second, it was gone as quick as it came. A sigh escaped their lips as they sat down next to the window and leaned against the bed.

 _What are you?_ The child thought to themselves. _You don't seem that scary now._

Frisk eventually fell asleep leaning on the bed, the drawing still up there. The snow continued to drift lazily through the air, slowly piling on the windowsill outside. The temperature had allowed the picture to exist a few more minutes before slowly melted away from the window.

But Frisk already knew what they saw and had even drew it, further putting it into their memory. The picture itself was kinda sloppy, but in their dream they clearly remembered the skull with the blue eye reaching out to save the child.

A few years had passed since then. The censored dreams kept coming, and the child still had no further idea on what the dreams meant. If anything, they were even more lost than they were before. The figure went back to hiding itself, making Frisk wonder if they had just begun another random dream. But it couldn't have been, it seemed to be so real...

All the same, the child had bigger fish to fry rather than fret about haunting dreams.

Their real life was more important at the moment though. Their mother had remarried a very dangerous man, one with a lot of power. He was the leader of the organization who wanted nothing more than to kill all the monsters that came to the city. He didn't like them at all. In fact, his group was named the LOHAM, League of Humans Against Monsters. The group was becoming more and more popular lately with all the recent monster activity going on.

LOHAM actually scared Frisk, if they were completely honest. The group's image was of a white human hand holding a sword that was only black and red. The background was silver. It didn't quite make sense to you, but that's probably why you weren't in charge of the group.

The man, you were only allowed to call him Pyrope, wasn't mean, but he wasn't nice either. See, Frisks's parents had gotten pregnant when the mother was Freshman in high school, which obviously sent the father away. The mother didn't care for the child and passed Frisk to friend to friend, relative to relative that soon Frisk learned how it felt to be unwanted by the age of eight.

Because of how often Frisk was away from their mother, she forgot what gender her child was and didn't care enough to ask. She prefered to call Frisk a boy, but Pyrope had insisted that the child was a girl due to how reserved 'she' was.

Frisk's gender didn't really matter to them all that much, but they didn't say anything. They only had to talk when they were spoken to or if there were an emergency going on. Otherwise, Frisk didn't want to say anything. They were told to be quiet enough in their childhood that being quiet was the only way to be good at anything in life to them. If you were loud and obnoxious, people would think that you were annoying and you were only good at somethings. If you were quiet and silent, people wouldn't notice you and wouldn't have expectations for you.

"Frisk!" Their mother's voice called from the hall. Frisk looked up from the drawing of a flower that they were doing for biology. "We're going out today! If you need anything, please call Stacy," the neighbor, "We won't be able to do anything else we're so busy!"

Translation: Don't call, we don't want to deal with your crap today.

Frisk wouldn't have thought it if they didn't say it that often, which they did. Everyday that's the goodbye that they would receive.

With a sigh, they got their schoolbag together. They were so smart that they were able to skip two grades with ease, but that was a while ago. Frisk had to forge her mother's signature on all the documents that required a signature, but that was before she was married to a politician. Now Frisk was stuck in the grade that they were in, after all, they couldn't attract to much attention.(They couldn't before, but now it was just even more so.) If they were to randomly switch grades and have to get new supplies and books, then the mother would notice. And if either parental unit found out, then that just spelled trouble.

So until then, Frisk found themselves in the seventh grade at a local public school that they walked to every morning. It wasn't that bad, really. It gave them time to think about what the dreams meant. Even if they always woke them up with fright, for whatever reason, it was quickly becoming a friend. Those shadows seemed to care a lot about the child in the dreams, and Frisk longed for a relationship like that so bad that they began to imagine them being friends with them.

It wasn't hurting anybody, plus it gave them something nice to think about. What harm could it do?

The morning was brisk due to the cold front setting in. Winter was an okay season to Frisk, but they much rather prefer spring. The flowers had always interested the child, particularly the yellow ones. Plus it was a nice change, like everything had reset itself to make it happier again.

But today, as the snow was drifting higher and higher, Frisk suddenly remembered something familiar about the snow. Like they were walking with somebody through the snow, holding their hand, laughing at something…

Almost an itch appeared in their brain, filling them with determination. The sudden urge to remember what the flashback meant and who was in it was filling the child, and they smiled slightly at the challenge.

To be honest with everybody, Frisk actually loved monsters and didn't get why people were so cruel to them. They seemed to be trying, it's just that they usually were either doing something that they didn't know was wrong (like putting on spider bake sales and yelling at people) or were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time (like when that monster had accidentally tripped into traffic-they were alright but people were mad regardless).

And if Frisk knew anything, it was that things weren't always what they appeared to be at first sight They were small, weak looking, and were super young for their grade. Yet, they were filled with enough determination to take on any challenge that came their way.

It was one of the few things that made the child proud of themselves.

Getting back onto track, monsters just seemed like they were trying. Organizations like LOHAM were just making everything harder for the monsters. Somebody really should offer to be an ambassador to them, it was almost sad that people haven't thought of that. Even with foreign countries, they had them. Why couldn't the monsters?

As the child continued the two mile walk to their school in the snow, the wind tickled their throat. It was almost painful, really. With a small cough, they cleared their throat. It hurt on days like this. It wasn't that unusual of a condition, it was very easy to treat, but with the mother that they had, of course they haven't received any treatment.

The truth was that Frisk had asthma. It would sometimes get pretty bad, but on most days Frisk was okay enough to get by without it. And again, it was easy enough to blend in so the teachers wouldn't notice. Gym was a bit tricky, but it was easy to hide in the bushes and wait until the last lap before jogging out behind the last person. By the time that they reached the final lap, they were sweaty enough to pass without any suspicion.

Again, the flashes of shadows appeared before their eyes. The innocent child imagined them saying comforting things to them as they struggled with their condition. Sometimes even cheering them on when they ran that one lap.

 _It was nice to have friends._ And the child smiled, agreeing with the thought.

But the smile disappeared at the sight of people in front of their school.

There were some protesters outside of the building, shouting things with signs. The signs held Pyrope's symbol and the letters that spelled out LOHAM were spread across a few. The school security guard was standing with their arms open, shouting back, trying to get them to calm down while the children passed to go into the classrooms.

Frisk sighed.

Today seemed to be going great until this.

Turned out a few monsters had come to the school to give a presentation to the children in attempt to win a few points. So far it hadn't been going well, but that was okay. They hadn't used their magic on anybody yet, and nobody died because of them, so they were still in the game.

As everybody left their classes to go to the gym, a few kids (mistakenly or not) bumped into Frisk and a few times had sent the child stumbling through the crowd. Crowds made them uneasy to begin with, but with the thought of monsters there made them even more anxious for whatever reasons. Eventually, they were able to step to the side of the hall to avoid the pushing crowd and wait it out.

Only once all the kids were in the gym and seated properly did Frisk enter. All of the seats had been filled so they stood to the side with a few of the teachers for a minute before they were able to sneak under the bleachers. There were a few parts in the stairs where the handlebars were so the seats weren't able to be used. Those were the best places to see perfectly, despite the dust under the bleachers. But Frisk usually put of their hood on their jacket so if anything fell down the cracks, like gum, it wouldn't get in their hair. So, all being considered, it wasn't that bad of a spot. At least they were able to see clearly.

Today was different, however, seeing as there was even a camera crew. A few monsters were standing a couple yards away, but with people still shuffling away, Frisk couldn't see clearly yet. But it was only logical that the camera crew were here to document how today went in case those mysterious monsters did something to hurt their reputation even further. Frisk of course, had faith in the monsters. Why wouldn't they? The monsters hadn't hurt anybody yet and seemed pretty nice.

Sometimes they wondered if they were scared of humans. The saying did go "They're more scared of you than you are of it," right? Did that apply to them as well?

"Alright, alright, sit down." The principal's voice filled out over the speaker. "We have to get this going, we pay the camera crew by the hour."

A few laughs filled the audience, but they did stop talking. The camera crew did some light testing and in a few minutes, they were ready to film. The principal began speaking, addressing the school and the camera at the same time, most likely having a script memorized. The monsters stepped out and Frisk let out a quiet gasp as they stood on their tiptoes to see through the cracks.

A tall, goat looking woman was standing there. She wore a purple dress looking thing and had small horns on top of her head. She looked very gentle, down to the last piece of fluff. It broke Frisk's heart all of a sudden. They felt like running out, hugging the goat woman and just cry, and they knew for a fact that the goat would hug back and whisper comforting messages in their ear.

The second monster seemed to be of a lizard. The scales were yellow and very pretty in the lighting that they were standing in. Frisk thought briefly that they were pretty in whatever light they stood under. Frisk agreed with the defensive thought and continued staring. They wore an overcoat and big, huge nerdy glasses on their face. They fidgeted with their jacket a lot and seemed to be looking for something. But what?

"Hey, kid." A voice filled the area behind Frisk, scaring the ever loving shit out of them. They jumped and grabbed their chest, accidentally smacking the area above them with their head. The voice seemed to be amused, but they couldn't be sure, their eyes were closed from the pain briefly. "I don't think you're suppose to be here, right?"

Frisk briefly lifted up their hood to peer at the voice and was shocked to see the same monster from their dream standing in front of them. The only shadow to show themselves, at all, ever, was actually in front of them. Frisk could hardly believe it.

Apparently, the monster felt the same way. His eye (eye sockets?) grew larger and he blinked a few times. He lifted up his hand, which were bony as well, and stepped closer. Frisk blinked rapidly and took a few, quick breaths, chest tightening.

The heartache from earlier had tripled and their chest felt like it was going to rip itself in half. Frisk quickly knelt down on their knees and tried to focus on both breathing and the skeleton in front of them.

"K..Kid?" They spoke gently, as if scared that they were going to disappear if they spoke too loud. "Frisk?"

They gasped painfully at that and began coughing slightly. "How," they croaked. "Do you know my...name?"

It was almost like they knew to lean in to listen to the child. It made them feel important, which made their chest swell with emotions and pain now.

"What are you talking about?" The skeleton blinked. "Frisk, it's me, Sans. "

More coughs erected from the child's chest.

"Are you okay?"

A shake of the head.

A cool, thin, hand touched their face. "Is it the asthma?"

Frisk's eyes widened.

 **Based off of this wonderful comic here: binart's tumblr** post/132368587815/ remember-the-one-who-poses-the-biggest-threat-to

For those of you who are a bit confused, Frisk had died at the end of the comic, and this is taking place after. In my personal theory, I think that they go back to living their normal life after all of that with no memory of what happened while the monsters still live their life. Hope that helps, it'll be most explained as well later on. Poor Sans though, he's so scared for his friend.


	2. The One with Goat Mom and the Bridge

**Wow, guys! To be honest, I didn't really expect much of a response from anybody, but you filled up my entire inbox within a day :D Thanks, yall! I won't update everyday, but I wanted to update today for you guys haha**

 **On with the story!**

Frisk looked at the skeleton with an alarmed expression. How did he know about the asthma? They had just met! Surely it couldn't been just a guess, right? Yeah! It was fair obvious that they were having breathing problems, right? He must have some background in medical knowledge somehow.

"Didn't realize that seeing me again would take your breath away," he somehow closed one of his eye sockets in a wink. They gave him an are-you-serious-right-now type of glare and he opened his eye again with a confused expression. The skeleton began talking again. "Kid, do you have any medicine for it? Down there I know you didn't but," he trailed off, seeing their confused expression. "I thought if you were here again that you woulda gotten more."

The child continued to give him an odd expression. It was too vague for him to decipher exactly what they were asking, but the general idea hit him all the same.

 _What the hell are you talking about?_

"Do ya remember me?" He asked them as he put an arm around their body and helped them out of the gym, unnoticed with all the attention focused on the other monsters. "Papyrus? What about Toriel?"

The child shook their head as Sans set them down on a bench outside the gym. The skeleton turned around and had went to retrieve some water for the child, hiding their face from their view. Frisk had began to feel a bit better and the water had definitely help, but they couldn't help but feel responsible. The monster seemed to be all worried about them and had appeared in their dream, but why? Who was this guy?

It was a long few minutes that included nothing but silence. On one hand, their chest felt better and they could breathe with more ease now. But on the other, their chest almost felt augmented in pain for making this guy seem so sad.

Frisk turned their head to them and offered a small smile to them. The monster turned his head to her and sighed. He didn't say anything to her, but nodded his head before looking back at the spot on the floor between his slippers.

Wait...slippers?

The child kept their smile and pointed at their feet in a questioning gesture.

He followed their eyes and let out a chuckle. "Yeah, those are the type of shoes I wear. See, bones don't really need arch support, ya know?"

Frisk couldn't help but feel like they should've made a joke or a pun or _something_ about his shoes, but he didn't. It made them feel worse, both for making him upset and even more confused. Why did they feel like that? This guy could be a totally serious guy for all they knew.

"How are you feeling, Frisk?" He questioned after a few seconds. "Do you need Toriel?" He sighed and shook his head. "Right. Forgot." He turned to the human and they couldn't help but flinch a little from his look. "You don't know. The goat lady out there. Her name is Toriel."

Oh.

No, no help from goats. The child is all better now.

When the skeleton received the gestured answer, they leaned back into the wooden chair and shoved their hands in their pockets, effectively stopping the conversation. But the human wasn't going to have any of that, not now at least.

"Um," they breathed. An eye socket seemed to stare at her, as if he could have a pupil swerve over to them. He seemed to be used to looking at them when anything was spoken, as if he knew that they didn't talk unless they wanted to, which was seldom. Their 'pupil' threw off any confidence that they mustered up and they simply pointed at the skeleton instead.

"Who am I?" He guessed. At the nod he turned back to staring at the wall. "Sans, Sans the skeleton."

At that moment, the doors to the gym threw open and people poured out by the dozens, filling the halls with bigger kids. Frisk picked up their feet and leaned back into the chair like Sans did. He eyes them again and chuckled. He got up and started walking into the crowd. They didn't even stop the crowd, he just walked straight into the flow of people. Most of them towered over him like they did Frisk, but that didn't phase him.

They stood up on the bench to watch what he was going to do, but he disappeared from sight. Their eyes swiveled all around to try and find a familiar flash of white, almost desperately, and didn't question that desperate feeling that bubbled up inside of them. But no matter how hard they looked, the skeleton was gone. By the time the last children filed threw the doors, Frisk knew this and sighed heavily. But the monsters didn't follow the last people into the hall.

Eyes now filled with determination, they jumped off the bench and ran over to the gymnasium doors. They threw the doors open and were filled with instant relief, and even more determination as they saw a yellow tail go through the gym's exit to the parking lot. Despite the asthma attack a few minutes ago, they sprinted towards the door.

They could feel their lungs complain about the movement again, especially after the last few minutes, but Frisk couldn't care less. They had to see the monsters again, they had to see Sans again! The needed to listen to the feeling that was grasping their heart. They felt like each step was through water, each breath came in a gasp, time slowed. Frisk suddenly remembered those nightmares where a person kept running and running, but wasn't moving at all. Was this one of them? It was possible; the dreams about the monsters was very active still, and Sans had shjown himself before.

But as the door opened again, their heart couldn't help but feel like it won.

The sky was gray, it was a bit cold today. Snow still covered the concrete parking lot, but most of it was slush now anyway. Most of the cars were darker colors, rarely a colorful care in the lot. No animals were running around, making it eerie quiet. Winter had that effect, they guess. It puts everything to sleep and lets the world take a break from working so hard. Humans were silly by ignoring the natural beauty that winter gave, the delicate white blanket was thrown off by cars, by humans, every time it snowed it seemed like they were desperate to get the snow off of the concrete because it got in their way.

How often did they treat each other like that? How often did humans treat anything different or beautiful that way simply because they were in the humans' path?

Frisk made a note to think about this later and looked around the parking lot. A car was pulling out. It was a pretty big car, now that they thought about it. It made sense though, seeing the goat lady from earlier in the driver's seat, and the yellow lizard sitting shotgun.

 _No._

Frisk ran out in front of the car as it passed by. They weren't worried at all about being hit, or getting hurt in anyway. They somehow knew that they would be totally safe if the monsters were involved.

What Frisk was unnerved about was that they were going to drive out of their life.

The car came to a stop within three feet of her with a jolt as the brakes were slammed on. Frisk could barely see over the grill of the black suv that stood now in front of her, engine growling slightly with annoyance at the human child.

The goat lady, Tori something, came out of the car with concern etched onto her face. "Oh my goodness, little one, are you alri-" Their sentence came to an abrupt stop, no unlike the car just seconds ago, as she recognized the child in front of them. Their face seemed to go blank for a few seconds before the lady bent down with tears in her eyes.

"Frisk?" The goat lady breathed in question, emotion thick in her voice. "Is that really you?"

Frisk nodded numbly. It was weird that one of the shadows from their dream had come to live today, and it was strange that he seemed to know a lot about her for just meeting her after haunting her dream for so many months. But after meeting two monsters that seemed to know who they were, just upon meeting them, Frisk knew that something was up. Were they in a car accident and got amnesia and their mom never telling them? It was a possibility.

Their thoughts were interrupted all of a sudden when a breath taking hug developed around them. Toriel was there, hugging them tightly. Frisk hadn't remembered the last time they got a hug, especially one with so much emotion in it.

"Oh, my child," the lady sniffed. "I thought you were gone."

"They don't know who you are, Toriel." Frisk jumped, and Toriel turned around. Frisk followed her gaze and found the skeleton from earlier, Sans, standing there with his hands in his jacket's pockets again.

"What are you talking about? Of course they do!" Toriel turned to the child and put her huge hand on their back. "Why else would they jump in front of my car? I don't think it's coincidence."

"I, uh," Frisk coughed into their hands. Their lungs were stinging. "I don't." Toriel's face made her chest hurt more. "Not really."

Sans lifted up his hand in an "I told you so" gesture, and Toriel glared with fierce anger at him.

"Sans the Skeleton!"

"Tori, I didn't do it to them. They don't remember me, either."

"W-what's going on?" A new voice joined the group as the lizard from earlier came out of the car. They stopped with a jolt like the others at the sight of the child and seemed to smile despite the implied shock. "Frisk!"

Frisk watched with confusion at the lizard as the other two began to bicker about the human child. The lizard took interest in the conversation, but the human stared numbly at a very interesting crack in the pavement. A new group must not want them, but it hurt still. Would this mean that their 'friends' wouldn't want her anymore? What about the other shadows? Could they still think about them caring for the child?

Probably not. It'd remind them of the other monsters.

With a sigh, Frisk knew that today would be one with talking involved. Strangely enough, they didn't really mind talking to the monsters. While they knew it wouldn't be a lot and they would be quiet if they could help it, there was something telling the human that they would listen with respect. Something that hasn't happened in a long, long time.

"I don't know who you are," they spoke softly, quickly cutting the argument into silence. "But something tells me that I do somehow."

Six eyes met each other in a look.

"Um," Frisk began again. "I mean, I don't know who you are, or why you know me, but I think...I might?" They thought about mentioning the dreams, but didn't want to seem like a creep. Imagine saying that! _Hey, I don't know you, but you were in my dreams. Let's be friends!_

It wouldn't go well.

So instead, they stopped talking. Frisk stared at the ground, looked up briefly, and quickly looked back down.

"It seems that there is some confusion," Toriel broke the silence. "Why don't we talk about this later?Frisk has school and we must be going home soon." Frisk looked up with shock. They couldn't leave! No!

Before they knew what they were doing, they spoke up again with urgency. "Can I come too?"

Toriel looked back at the child. "What about school?"

Frisk shrugged their shoulders. "I already know what we're learning."

Toriel seemed hesitant to do anything that bold. "School is necessary, my dear," she spoke in their motherly voice. "You have to go."

Frisk shook their head and rushed forward to grab a hold of Toriel. "Please," they begged.

"Aw, let the kid come, Tori. At least then we can figure out what's happened." Sans spoke up, his hands in his pockets still. Something about his voice chilled the human, however. It seemed mistrusting and menacing.

The lizard said something as well, but Frisk didn't catch it. Sans's eyes were staring at them and they couldn't look away. Something about those black holes made Frisk a bit nervous. It was as if they were staring right into their soul. In fact, they didn't move until Toriel gently shook their should to get their attention and tell them to get into the car.

Numbly, they did.

They had to sit in the back seat with Sans, seeing as how shotgun and driver's seat were taken, and Toriel also refused to let them sit up front. "They're too young! No way am I about to endanger them like that after getting them back."

Sans kept watching them for a bit.

The school disappeared silently behind them and Frisk let out a small smile. Today might not be that bad of a day, after all.

The ride back into the city was a quiet one, but a lot of information was thrown out there. The lizard was named Alphys and was a royal scientist before coming up onto the surface. She apparently had a strong love for anime and seemed to be a bit of a nervous wreck, but that was okay. She seemed pretty nice and cute in any case.

Toriel seemed very motherly to everybody as well, and Frisk briefly wondered if she really was their mother. Then right after, disregarded that thought. Wouldn't they look alike if they were really her kids? Frisk also wanted to know if the lady...no, Toriel, had kids, but didn't ask. They could always ask somebody else once things were more informal and when Toriel wasn't right in front of them.

Just as they were about to get onto the bridge to cross a huge river, one that always froze over in the winter, a cop had signaled them to a stop. Toriel took a deep breath and pulled over. Alphys looked a bit worried as well, and when they turned to see San's expression, he quickly put his hood up and turned away from the human.

Well, didn't that feel nice?

Toriel rolled down the window and the officer came up to the window. He looked annoyed.

"Do you have your papers?" He spoke in a rough voice. "I need to see them."

"Yes, yes, of course." Toriel reached over for her purse and began digging through them. "It'll take just a moment to collect all of-"

"Do you have your bands?" He cut her off with a fierce expression. "All monsters are required to wear them at all times to ensure safety."

Toriel flinched and looked sheepish, which she shouldn't. She's a goat after all. (ba dum tish)

In fact, all of the monsters in the car seemed to tense some.

Taking the silence as an answer, the cop sighed and pointed to a building next to the frozen river's bridge. There was a parking lot and a line of a few monsters inside. "I need you to stop inside and get your bands."

Toriel nodded, thanked the officer, and he glared at her. His eyes settled on the human in the car and his expression began to take more of a fierce one. "Why is that kid in the car?"

Frisk quickly spoke up before anymore trouble brewed. "They're my friends. Is that a problem?"

The officer glared and barked at Toriel to get over to the building and get the bracelets before they had a problem.

Toriel didn't want a problem and quickly drove over to the building. "Thank you, dear." She spoke to you with a smile. "It was very kind of you to speak up for us." She knelt in front of Frisk and pulled their jacket closer around them. "It's a bit cold, but I want you to wait outside, okay? We'll only be a few minutes."

Frisk nodded and watched as the monsters went into the small building with cops standing inside, glaring at the monsters as they passed. The child briefly wondered what bracelets the man was talking about, and why monsters had to have them on 'at all times.' Their feet began to move towards the bridge too look over at the view. People would go over and make a wish, throwing a rock into the water every now and then. It's said that the wish would carry down the stream into the ocean, evaporate, and when it rained, your wish would pour back down on you to come true.

Did it work?

Frisk didn't know, but hoped so. Even if it didn't, it was pretty fun to watch people do it.

They began to walk over to where the bridge wall was to see the ice chunks swiftly drift down the stream. It was a pretty fast current, given the size of the river. You could throw a bottle in the river and it'd be out of sight within a minute. The drop itself would give the bottle a few feet of distance. It was like a forty foot drop into the icy water. One that wouldn't be pleasant if anything fell in.

Frisk didn't envy the rocks that were thrown in.

On their way to the wall, however, they were knocked down on their knees by a couple of teenager guys. They were holding a struggling...something? Frisk could only see glimpses of yellow and a cry, but otherwise? Nothing. It could've passes off as a dog or something, but dogs don't cry out for help and aren't hated right now.

With their heart beating faster, their feet picked up in speed. The teenagers got closer to the wall and the struggling of the monster increased.

Frisk could hear their heartbeat in their head. A sense of dread augmented in the atmosphere.

"S-stop," Frisk spoke. It wasn't very loud, and the teens either didn't hear the child or ignored them. "Stop!" Their voice got louder, as did their fear when the teens lifted up their arms in the air, void of any creature in their possession earlier.

Frisk ran over to the wall and saw the monster fall into the icy water, a soft splash echoed through their eardrums. The world stopped for a second. That monster, while it wasn't in their dreams at all, Frisk _knew_ them. A familiar monster had just fallen into the water and hadn't surfaced at all yet. Why didn't they come up yet? Couldn't they swim?

"Dude, did you see that? It was so funny!" Frisk angrily turned to them, expected people to stop and agree with them on how wrong it was for them to do anything like that. But people didn't stop. People didn't even notice that something like that had happened. Surely somebody would care! If they threw a human into the river, people would be calling the emergency three digit number within seconds.

"They didn't even have arms! It'll drown for sure," one of the teens chuckled. "I'll bet my next paycheck on it."

No...arms?

A monster without arms, tripping over themselves a lot…

 _N...no!_

Without wasting any time, the determined human ran back over to the wall and, with what little strength they possessed, pulled themselves over and leaped after the monster with no arms.

The drop itself lasted a lot longer than they expected, but the water was definitely not what they had anticipated at all. It hit them like a thousand daggers jabbing all at once, knocking the breath out of their lungs, and the water surged down into them, making them instinctively gag. More water flew into their lungs and made the human immediately scared for their own life. Frisk tried to call out desperately for anybody, somebody, to come down and help! They surged all the please and desperation into their mind, screaming for help.

But nobody came.

What if they drowned? What would happen? Would their mom bury them? Would they notice?

...Would anybody notice?

They floated down, deeper and deeper into the water. Maybe this was a good things. Letting the water fill their lungs and just...stop. After all, their mom didn't care for them, they had no friends, and they preferred different pronouns than everybody else! They were a freak and deserved to die. Nobody would care.

Except….the monster's reactions to everything made them pause in their thoughts. When they first saw them, they had immediately cared about them. Upon first meeting, just like that! Did everybody do that? Is that what friendship is?

With determination to find out, their body kicked into action and sprang towards the surface. Their arms felt like it was made of lead and the water seemed to want to drown them and latched onto them, but it didn't matter. Frisk sprang out of the water, and began coughing immediately. They didn't seem to do anything else but cough and swim desperately in the shifting water.

By the time their eyes flew open they were-

Huh.

The bridge was almost out of sight and completely further away than what Frisk imagined. Meaning…

The monster! Frisk quickly began to swim around, looking for any sign of the monster. No sign of the yellow-ish monster appeared, but Frisk continued. Suddenly, as if a gift from God, a flash of yellow appeared briefly when the river crashed into a fallen tree. They monster jumped out of the water and caught a branch with their teeth. If Frisk thought that they were cold, the poor monster seemed to be doing so much worse.

Their body was shivering and the branch began to shake along with it. Frisk took off after the monster and had got there just in time. The branch snapped, sending both creature and branch into the water. Frisk had been able to catch the monster in their tiny arms and began backpedaling with their feet, but even with that, the branch had hit them, sending them into the water for a few seconds before bobbing up again.

"Oh my god, thank you!" The monster child sobbed. "But now we're both gonna die!"

He might've had a point. The river didn't seem like it went along any banks or anything like that. It continued to flow through the city, with cement walls around it, keeping it trapped and contained. Fear now again surged through the human and creature's veins, hearts racing.

The icy water splashed against them time and time again, sending more shivers down their spines. The monster continued to sit in the human's arms, despite being the same size as them. The current continued to send them deeper and deeper into the city. There seemed to be no hope for the two as they splashed their way closer to the ocean. Bridge after bridge passed overhead of them, casting a dark overview of them for a few seconds.

"Look! Up ahead!"

Frisk looked and immediately wish they hadn't. Ahead was a drop of the river into the sewers. A hole in the concrete floor that created a swirl of water around the hole. A whirlpool was dragging them closer before it dropped into the sewer pipes below. Frisk had seen this once, a long, long time before. Some fun parks have this as a ride in the water parts, but this was not a fun park. This was not a ride.

The two were going to drown.

Frisk and the monster clung to each other, eyes widening and Frisk wished that they could've done more in their life than just struggled through each day, hoping that something would come up for them. An adventure, or somebody to whisk them away. Anything to get them out of the rout they made for themselves, but it seemed like it was going to be gone before it came.

 _Actually, no._ Frisk thought with a careful voice. _They did come. The monsters came._

The monster and human began to scream loudly as the whirlpool came closer and closer to them. Frisk grabbed a hold of the monster and hugged them tightly. _This was it. This was really it. I'm going to die like this._

The two closed their eyes and were beginning to feel the effect of the current pulling on them. In just seconds, the two would be unable to break away from the current and be whisked away to their death. The two shivered and cried, unable to do anything but hold on to each other for the rest of their short lives.

Frisk closed their eyes. They didn't want to see this.

Suddenly a noise filled the air that Frisk didn't expect. They didn't want to see death at all, but instead opened their eyes to find a dog swimming towards them. The dog was soaked, being in the water, but the white coat was definitely getting dirtier the longer it was in the water. Still, it seeming like it wanted to help and continued to bark at them as they swam closer, the two stopping their screams to watch.

The dog approached them and the two waited for nothing before grabbing a hold of the dog. The dog began paddling over to the side of the river, where behind a huge concrete bridge was a metal staircase that seemed like it was abandoned, if the rust was any indicator of it. The three creatures practically threw them on the staircase. It creaked with each movement, but Frisk couldn't care less. They were frozen, couldn't feel with fingers or toes, exhausted, their lungs had polluted water in them, and they were further away than they ever had been from home.

Yet, Frisk couldn't believe that they were thinking this, but that was almost fun. It was the right thing to do regardless, and was incredibly, amazingly, awesome.

They began to laugh after they had coughed a few times (and threw up due to coughing and swallowing so much water). The monster child began to laugh as well and the dog wagged it's tail proudly.

"That was fun!" The monster smiled. "But never again."

After finding getting out onto the sidewalk, people had their phones out and were filming you. They began to crowd around, asking questions about why you were in the water, what happened, that dog came out of nowhere, etc.

The monster happily explained what happened. "Guys, it was amazing! The human jumped in after me to save me! A couple of bullies threw me in and they came in after me!" The monster happily danced around and jumped over to Frisks's side. "We were swooshed away," Frisk had no doubt that if the monster had arms, they would be throwing them all over the place, "and we were gonna die until this doggy came over to save us!"

The dog continued to wag it's tail in response.

The monster and a bunch of the phones followed into your direction. "Why..why did you jump in after me?"

A moment of silence fell upon the crowd as they listened to the reason of why. Frisk themselves wanted to know why too, but already knew. Water trailed down their ruined jacket, their breath was visible in the air, soaked hair stuck to their body, shivers wracked their frame, and yet. Frisk smiled, a real, genuine smile, the first time in a while.

"Because," their voice croaked and they had to clear it. "Because you're a living being. You're no different from me just because you look different." They put an arm around the monster and turned to the crowd. "Monster or human, nobody should have to die for being different." Something filled inside of Frisk that made them continue. "How is that fair?"

The crowd began to applaud and Frisk continued to smile shyly as the monster hugged them back.

Today was a good day after all.

Once they were brought back to the three monsters, Toriel was close to tears. She basically screamed upon seeing Frisk and threw herself on them. "Oh, thank god!" She sobbed. The other two were very happy to see they were okay, well...one was, the other was standoffish, but still mentioned how he was glad that they were okay.

"Had we known," Toriel swore to the young child. "We wouldn't have gone into that shop. Sans would've save you with his magic."

Frisk tilted their head in question and turned to Sans. He explained he had some...gifts. But the bracelets that monsters were required to wear had made their powers unusable. It was to make sure that monsters had less power and humans were able to be on the same level, more or less.

Frisk thought that it was a horrible thing to do to anybody. Why stop their gifts? That was taking away their birth given rights!

Alphys must've picked up on their facial expression because they spoke up. "It's not right, n-no, but if it makes humans happy, maybe they'll be nicer and see we mean no harm!"

Frisk grew angrier with that. They didn't say anything, but their expression was worth a thousand words to them.

"Hey, kid," Sans spoke up. "We know it ain't right, but what other choice we got? We're damned if we do, damned if we don't."

"Sans! Don't curse in front of the human." Toriel placed her hands on your head, covering your ears, despite the fact they could still hear.

A small smile broke across their face and Sans winked at you before cracking a joke about cursing, which didn't make the goat mom any less amused, but Frisk giggled anyway.

The three of you headed back to the car before Sans stopped them. He looked a bit worried and torn about his decision about something. Frisk were so focused on his face that the kid didn't realize he was handing the child something. "Look, kid, I got a bone to pick with you, but I'm not about to let you get sick."

Frisk looked down. His arms were exposed as he was holding his jacket in his outstretched hand. "I don't have any skin to get cold. You're soaking wet. Take it."

As Frisk exchanged the jacket out for the drier one, he chuckled and got into the car. "It was _cool_ of you to jump in, by the way." He winked at you. "But don't do that again."


	3. The One with the Restaurant

Toriel had insisted that they take Frisk home. After all, after an asthma attack, jumping into a river that carried the poor thing miles away, and being pestered by humans, one would be completely and utterly exhausted. It'd be the only logical sense to be tired, right? But for whatever reason, Frisk was anything but. Their heart still raced, adrenaline still rushed around in their veins, breath still out of control. In their entire life, nothing this invigorating had ever happened. It made them feel alive somehow, as if this was what was going to change their life for good. It made them feel so much _better,_ they didn't ever think that the rut they were stuck in could change.

It felt so good to be out of the rut for an afternoon.

So, Frisk had wanted to stay with the monsters. But, Toriel wasn't going to hear it. Despite Alphys on their side, Sans didn't say anything on the ride home, she had wanted them to go home and reassure the parents that their child was okay. Deep down, though not that deep, Frisk knew that they would only care that they'd bother them by being late. They wouldn't care that Frisk had done something out of the norm, they wouldn't care that Frisk felt loved, the only real thing that they might have cared about today was the fact that Frisk had associated themselves with monsters.

So, with heart full of disappointment, they watched through the window as the car pulled up next to their apartment complex. Their apartment was located in the middle of the city, too far away from any type of tree. The building was a dull gray one with lots of windows, bricks, and the occasional graffiti behind the dumpster. It was a boring building, on a boring street, in a less boring city (now that the monsters were here), and they didn't want boring. They wanted excitement.

After bidding the monsters a goodbye, Frisk walked up to their apartment's floor, the elevator was out due to their neighbor's child breaking it the other day. They smiled slightly, remembering the yelling coming through the walls. It was actually really upsetting and bad, but everybody who lived in this building was extremely rich and could afford to buy whatever he broke. It was still funny though, Frisk giggled slightly as they dug out their key.

When they unlocked the door and swung it open, bag balanced on one leg, they looked at their sleeve and realized that they were still wearing the skeleton's jacket. They slightly regretted it, they didn't want to cause anybody the trouble of having to return it and have to apologize for accidentally taking it, but at the same time...This was an excuse to see the monsters again. The monsters were actually really nice. Maybe they wouldn't mind seeing the child too?

Frisk was suddenly glad that Alphys and Toriel had given their numbers to them to put into their phone. Not only was it good to contact them about the jacket, but it was even better to have somebody that wasn't their parents in their contacts. Sans didn't, but Frisk wasn't sure that he even owned a phone, so that was okay. In any case, they shot a text to Alphys, telling them that they still had Sans's jacket and they could return it whenever. Today was Friday, and they had the entire weekend to spend doing whatever they wanted.

It had only taken a second to realize that nobody was home in their deluxe apartment. It had four other rooms, not including the living room and kitchen. The two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an office, and an extra room that Frisk wasn't allowed in had occupied the apartment. They didn't even know what was really in the last room, they were just told to stay out. It didn't really matter, but if it meant less trouble for the child, then they won't question it. It seemed like the only time any attention was given to the kid was when they were caught doing something they weren't suppose to be doing. And in their parents' eyes, that was often.

All the furniture was very modern and felt like it was overstuffed with cushion and/or fluffing. The couch was purely white and sat on a red rug, facing the flat screen that hung proudly on a wall. All over the walls were simply wall decorations that could be found at Ikea. A few plants scattered around the apartment, ranging from simple flowers to bamboo that came directly from Asia when the parents went there for their honeymoon. A fireplace was stationed below the flat screen and was set on the low setting to warm the apartment while everybody was away for the day. When Frisk was a child, they would draw over the glass with a marker to give the fire a face when it was on to make it seem like...a monster. The thought almost seemed comical to them now, but at the same time filled them with a weird feeling. They couldn't tell if it was a good or bad feeling, but Frisk wasted no time and took off their jacket and put it down on the angry bricks while they debated over it. Once they come out of the shower, they'd have something extra warm to snuggle up in.

The shower was almost a gift from god. No, it _was_ a gift from Him, their muscles unclenched under the water's gentle message and the warm liquid had helped soothe the cold off of the child. Feeling returned to their body and with a deep sigh, they closed the plug and let the warm water fill the tub. With the shower turning into a bath, the child sat down in the warm water and sighed peacefully. The steam helped with breathing. Breathing would be a good key item to be doing after all the crazy events today. Pretty soon, they found themselves thinking about the monsters and the events of today.

The monsters were from their dream, Frisk knew without a doubt. But why would they show up in reality? Why did they dream each night about the monsters, but weren't able to see them at all in their dream? Too many unanswered questions droned around in their head and Frisk decided that they'd have to figure out the mysterious answers later. For now, they might as well enjoy having...what were they exactly? Friends? Acquaintances?

Ugh. More questions.

Frisk got out of the warm bath almost an entire hour later, threw on some dry clothes, and marched out of their bare room to retrieve their jacket. When they put the jacket on and immediately felt the extra warm of it, it just felt so fluffy and comforting. Despite the strong smell of grease that hung onto the blue clothing, it felt...right. With the jacket being like a portable toaster, the child mosied over to their bedroom and looked around. It felt like it had been a long, long time since they've been in there. Almost like it's been a lifetime since they were there. It had only been since that morning, but it was different. Like it was a previous child that lived there, not them.

But previous child or present child, the child that was in there now was super tired and couldn't resist plopping down onto the bed with a _thump_ and curling up underneath the blanket, jacket and all.

Frisk fell asleep within minutes in their room.

 _Pit pat pit pat pit pat_ ….

 _Rain had begun to poor all around the human. It looked like it was the same one from all the other dreams. Despite being able to see them perfectly, Frisk had no idea who they were. The human seemed familiar, and the monster next to them was speaking._

 _The monster had indeed seemed to be talking, but almost every other word was censored out by the static surrounding them. The only audible words were human, friend, and...undying?_

 _It continued to rain._

 _Static surrounded the place, and the noise became so loud, like a television being turned up slowly while the black, white, and grey, particles danced around the screen annoyingly._

Frisk woke up to see the annoying numbers on their clock screaming that it was too early to be awake. Yet, no sweating. No chills running down their spine. Nothing scary was happening to them this time. Yet, the dream was so short. The only thing that the child could recall was that the human they saw was walking with a monster in the rain.

But...the more they thought, the more complex it became. That monster was the one they saved the day before. They were positive about it, no doubt. How could that be? Three monsters appearing in one day was too freaky already, but a fourth? It was unthinkable. Impossible.

...But weren't monsters impossible only a little bit ago?

In the morning, the cold air had resurfaced in their room and Frisk had to grind their teeth to make them stop chattering together. The only warmth source was their cocoon of sheets, why would they want to leave it? The only good thing that could come out of it was the small chance of seeing the monsters today. The chance must have been good enough to pry themselves out of the safe cocoon and walk out of their room back over to where the fireplace was to sit on the warm bricks, trying to gain back some lost heat.

Their mother was home and was currently cooking herself a breakfast in the kitchen that connected with the living room. "Hello, my darling boy!" She grinned casually at Frisk. "Today we're going to get a haircut. And get you some different clothes."

Frisk frowned slightly and shook their head. "What? What's the matter?" They pointed at their hair and shook their head again. The mother stared at them for a while with a scrutinizing look. It lasted for a few minutes and Frisk was about to repeat the movement when they spoke up. "You like your hair?" Nod, nod, nod. "Baby, boys can't have long hair. Especially you, sweat pea. It makes you look like you came off the streets. And that sweater doesn't help, where did you get that?"

She gestured to San's blue jacket. Frisk fidgeted and mumbled that they borrowed it from a friend. "Well, that friend needs to get better clothes. Come on, we're leaving in a few minutes."

After letting their mother scarf down the whole grain bread and a few eggs, they were off to get their hair chopped off. Their mother didn't want 'their darling baby boy' with long hair, and Frisk knew that they were going to miss their length. It had taken almost a year to get where it's at. The hair stylist sympathized, but didn't say anything. It was a paying customer, after all.

So here they were.

They watched the hairstylist cut their hair with a grimace, their mother on Facebook no doubt in the waiting room. The hair was just about complete when Frisk saw the angry reflection of their mother stomping into the room. "What is this?" She demanded and pushed her phone at them. It was the video from yesterday when Frisk saved the monster. It had apparently had gone viral and she saw it when a page she liked had shared it. Frisk shrugged, not being able to say anything that would get them out of trouble.

"This is bullshit and you know it." The mother sneered only low enough for Frisk to hear before getting a dangerous look on their face. Frisk didn't like that look, she had learned it from Pyrope when they starting dating. It was a look that meant that they were going to get what they wanted, one way or another. "You know," she turned to the stylist. "I forgot that I'm sending him to a military thing tonight. I need their hair buzzed. It must be in regulation, as you know."

Frisk's eyes widened and they shook their head desperately. "I know you're nervous, Frisk, baby, but we need to get your hair in regulation. You don't want to be _punished,_ do you?" She grinned like Cruella de Vil. "I'll pay for the overtime, but please get it buzzed." She left the room and called over her shoulder that they'll be waiting out in the lobby.

There was no military thing tonight. And they knew full well what the punishment could be.

Frisk closed their eyes tightly and tried not to hear the buzzer.

When they left the hair salon, all of their hair was gone. Nothing was left. Frisk felt more cold than before, and it wasn't because of the biting wind on top of their now almost bald head. Their punishment for saving a monster was losing all of their hair. The only thing that remained was a thin layer on top of their head, nothing more than fuzz on top of a peach.

Frisk bit back their tears as their mother lectured them. "Just wait until your father hears about this," she chided. "He'll throw a fit for sure."

"He's not my father," Frisk muttered. "He won't even let me call him step-dad."

"Maybe if you gave him more of a chance and talked to the guy, he'll like you." The mother tutted not sympathetically. "You are being very quiet lately. It's annoying trying to guess what all your gestures mean."

Frisk didn't say anything the rest of the ride.

Toriel had texted them, asking if they wanted to come over today. Truth be told, they had. Desperately. But they didn't think that they could. Especially because of the parental units acting like how they were. Take when they got home from shopping that afternoon. Pyrope had blown up at their mother, demanding if they wanted their girl to be a lesbian. That sparked a full blown argument, their mother insisting that Frisk was a boy, Pyrope saying that there was no way that something so fragile like them could be, blah blah blah.

Despite all the arguing, the humans all went out to a very fancy place for dinner. We're talking like, reservation must be made weeks in advance, live band (classical, of course) playing in the background, suits and dresses, a hundred different types of forks surrounding a small plate with store brand salad, prices running more than anything reasonable. It was everything that the upper class of society enjoyed, and it was fantastic. Except, if you were like Frisk. If you were like Frisk, then you were forced into a suit to wear, the mother finally winning the debate on which gender of the day you were, and the tie choking you.

They ran their fingers around the tie, trying to get more air into their lungs. Frisk had always tried to get their parents attention for the asthma, but so far no success landed their way. That, or the more likely case of them not caring enough to actually take them to get help. So, for now, Frisk had googled some helpful tips on how to control your breathing during an attack. So far they worked pretty well, but Frisk had also read that if it went untreated, things can quickly escalate. But if they could control their breathing, which they were trying to do. And if they could control it, it should be okay, right?

That's what they told themselves, anyway.

The dinner was okay, to say the least. The food was fantastic, the shrimp scampi that they ordered was crunchy and soft at the same time. On the plate, the cook must've been notified that they were serving a child because they put the leaves in a smile. It had made Frisk smile softly, but the stepfather was unamused at it. He grumbled about it being too childish for them, took off the leaves and left the food. The food was still great, almost good enough to make the conversation bearable.

The parents argued mostly about their child, as if they weren't even there. Frisk mostly ignored it, only getting glimpses at the argument when their name was said. But otherwise, nothing. That is, until they started to mention the keyword that dragged the poor child into the debate.

"She was out with the monsters," their mother huffed. "She almost died, Jerry!"

Jerry Pyrope shot their head towards Frisk. "What?"

Frisk fidgeted underneath the table and tried to take a deep breath. It was wobbly.

"Look at this." A phone was pulled out and shoved over to Pyrope. It was a video of the viral sensation of Frisk, the hero. Saving a monster child and claiming that monsters were people too, that they didn't deserve that. That Frisk stood up for something that shouldn't exist in the cruel step-father's eyes.

A spine-chilling silence filled the air as the replay button filled the screen over the video.

Frisk's heart was beating so fast they could hear it. Briefly, they wondered if their parents could hear it too. They didn't know how long the silence lasted, but it was enough to make them wince when a voice filled the air. A cruel voice with danger tied in heavily.

"I think," his voice was as sharp as a knife. "It's time to pay the bill."

Frisk didn't want to be anywhere near him for a while. With their heart rate up so high, their breathing was starting to rise as well. If their breathing got out of hand much more, they would notice for sure that something medical was wrong and then Frisk would be punished for it in some way. They needed to go somewhere and work on their breathing exercises google showed them before the parents found out. "Can...I go to the bathroom?"

"That's fine, honey." The mom answered casually, eyeing Pyrope with a face that couldn't be read by a child. "We'll be in the car. See you later."

The bathroom was fancy too. Elevator music filled the room as Frisk watched their face in the mirror, counted to ten, taking a deep breath. Their hands were slowly starting to stop their shaking. As their nerves were starting to calm down, their brain was starting to unfog as well, even if it took a while.

Actually...it had taken a while.

How long have they been waiting in here? Couldn't be more than a few minutes, could it? Their parents would lecture them on top of everything for making them wait. Frisk had to move out now. They quickly walked out of the bathroom and went back into the dining room to find the table that they were sitting at was full of other people. Frisk blinked, trying to see something else, anything else. Their parents were...right there like two minutes ago? Where could they have gone?

" _We'll be in the car."_

The words echoed in their mind, buzzing like an angry bee. Slowly, gears began to turn as Frisk saw the meaning behind those five words. It only made more sense when they realized how emotionless their mother sounded when she spoke them.

" _See you later."_

No. They wouldn't.

With a blank face, Frisk went back outside and looked to the valet that was stationed right outside of the restaurant. Frisk went up, told them their name and started to describe the car they drove in. The valet stared at them before nodding slightly when they recognized the expensive vehicle they were describing.

"That car? Yeeeeah," he looked around and pointed in a general direction towards the car lot then to the road." "Just got it out. A couple drove off like two minutes ago. That your car? Ya look kinda young to drive."

Numbly, they shook their head. "Just checking," they mumbled softly. With a turn of the foot, they were off towards the darkened sidewalk. Hands in their suit pocket, the one Sans gave them at the apartment, they set off towards the were in downtown of the city, and their apartment was about thirty minutes away by car going seventy-five down the highway. It was a hell of a walk. Might as well start walking, right?

They tried to ignore the tears pricking their eyes.

This was the second time their mother had abandoned them like this. Frisk didn't know what the first time was. They didn't know that the first time had been on a mountain with a wicked legend wrapped around the surrounding forest. They didn't know that this time, just like the last, had ended up changing their life for the better.

They didn't know that the only real monsters were the humans that mis-gendered Frisk everyday.

But...before they could really know anything, they heard a voice behind them. One that sent chills down their spine and made their heart jump. With a frightened look behind them, the sight that was behind them made Frisk gasp.


	4. The One with Sans

Frisk's heart pounded in their ears, breaking the silence that surrounded them like the dark, abandoned street. They felt scared still, but knew that they were in no real danger, after all they knew who it was. Briefly they wondered if the image in front of them could hear it as well, but shut down the idea just as quickly. Skeletons didn't have ears, after all. But...they could still hear?

Skeletons were weird.

And this one was no different in their eyes. The short, plump, skeleton mosied on over to their friend, smirking slightly at the scare that Sans had caused. "Hey, kiddo," he greeted with that ever permanent smile. It seemed forced, like it usually did when Frisk saw him. "Did I scare you? You look like you've seen a monster," he joked.

Frisk shook their head, smiling slightly at their, hopefully, friend.

"Good. I don't want ya to jump out of your skin like I did." He sent a wink over to them and laughed. "C'mon, walk and talk with me." Without waiting for their response, he started off in a direction and Frisk followed with no hesitation. Where else could they go?

The city didn't seem as dark as it had before. In fact, now that Frisk was travelling with a friend it seemed to be more peaceful, more welcoming. They didn't know why, but they felt safe with Sans. They seemed to have best friend potential, if not more. He made jokes that erupted laughter from the child, but when he told a joke, somehow Frisk didn't think it was meant for them. The skeleton was odd indeed, why would they make jokes, but then turn around and glare at them for even speaking slightly? They seemed nice to them, but it appeared to be forced. It had confused Frisk. Why did Sans seem so upset at them? They had barely even met them. Maybe he was ambiguous and was one of those people who were two faced?

Despite walking with a (spoiler), soon to be best friend, silence clung to the pair like glue and refused to be ignored. It filled the air with a deep tension that also made Frisk feel awkward. Their shoes scraped against the sidewalk as they walked, horns screamed in the distance where roads were more prominent, and Frisk's breathing seemed like the only thing that was audible anymore. Sans kept his head down, back facing the child, and hands in his pockets. He didn't say anything. Didn't do anything. It seemed like the only possible way that he even acknowledged the presence of the child was by slowing down every once and awhile when Frisk seemed to be having a hard time catching up.

The silence seemed to reign on forever until he abruptly stopped, causing the child to bump into his back with a quiet grunt of surprise.

"I got a question for ya, buddy," he turned his skull slightly, but Frisk wasn't able to see their eye sockets, only more skull. "Why're ya here in the city at this time?"

"D-dinner with my parents," Frisk mumbled with a small voice.

"Then why are you here alone? Where are they?" He kept looking forward.

His voice scared Frisk a little, sending chills up their spine.

When they didn't respond, Sans turned around, fully. His eyes were closed, shutting the child out from seeing his flickering anger. He took a deep breath before re-opening them, keeping his anger in check. For the time being, at least. His eyes weren't glowing, but certainly not calm as usual.

"Where are your parents, Frisk?"

Frisk watched an ant scurry along next to their foot. The ant seemed to be searching for something. Food, perhaps?

"Frisk."

Frisk looked up at Sans's chest. That's as far as they would look. They couldn't look higher.

Sans put a boney hand on their shoulder. It felt light.

"Frisk, kiddo, look at me." Frisk didn't want to. Their eyes felt like lead, they felt like they were being dragged when they moved their eyes up to meet his. Eventually, they made eye contact, but tears were starting to stream down their face by the time that they did. "Kid," Sans sighed and lifted a finger to brush away a tear. "Where are ya folks?"

Frisk shrugged and swallowed a sob.

Sans mentally cursed, ran a hand over his skull, as if pushing his non-existing hair back. "Okay. Well, I'm not about to leave you out here." He wrapped an arm around their friend, pulling them close in a small hug. "Let's just go home, okay? You can...join the rest of the group." He seemed hesitant.

Frisk nodded, not really caring at that point.

They walked in silence for the rest of the way, his arm wrapped around their shoulders like a blanket. His jacket sleeve seemed warmer than the stingy suit coat that they were still wearing. The jacket made them feel worse, just the mere thought of it had made them feel like they were drowning in pressure. Sans had kept glancing over, bringing them over every now and then for a quick hug, but it had seemed forced and dubious .

"Hey, Sans?" The child looked over at the skeleton. "Can I ask something?"

"Shoot, kid." His eyes were kept forward again.

"Are you mad at me?"

The footsteps slowed at the question.

"Did I do something?"

"What makes you think that?" His voice was deeper, yet softer. As if they were approaching a dangerous territory.

"You seem kinda mad at me for some reason," they shrugged. "I thought you were, but if you're not-"

"I never said I wasn't." He cut in, voice sharp like a blade. "Gotta say, I'm ticked off with you, kid."

The footsteps stopped. There was a pause in time at that moment for Frisk. All of their senses were working overtime in that small moment, making every detail known. The air smelled kinda musky, thick with more than tension. In the distance, innocent cars drove around. A horn beeped, signaling that somebody was no longer all that innocent, now they had made a mistake for something that they didn't realize at the time. It seemed familiar to Frisk.

Sans quickly turned and stared deeply into Frisk's eyes, theirs returning the gesture. The sockets were like deep holes in the side of a wall, not able to see the other side. It astonished the child, shouldn't there be light in there somewhere? It had made them want to shudder with amazement, but with Sans up in their face like this, fear was the only thing that made Frisk shutter. The rest of the world didn't matter to them in that small moment. His arm started to shake before he ripped it off the kid's shoulders and turned away.

"What did I-"

"What'd you do? Frisk, you did everything!" He turned to them with a mask of fury on, entire body shaking slightly. "You're the entire reason everything happened and you don't even remember half of it!"

They flinched at the sudden explosion. Something told them that this wasn't normal for Sans. Something told them that this is scary even for them.

"You've hurt me so many times that I just don't care anymore! I'm expecting you to hurt me again and again, but this is a new low, even for you." His eyes seemed to spark with fury. "How can you hurt me like that, just appear again, and then claim you don't remember!?"

"I...I don't k-know what you're talking about." Frisk took a step back, worry creasing their face. "You're scaring me."

"You think _I'm_ scaring _you?"_ He barked a laugh. "Kid, you don't even know what fear is now. Frisk, listen, you have done something awful, and now you got to escape it. Toriel told everybody that you're back. They're ecstatic that you're back. They're so happy. But not me, no. I won't let you hurt them again."

He took a step forward, eye alight with blue flames.

Frisk kept taking steps back. Their frame was shaking from fear as adrenaline quickly set in. It was fight or flight instinct, and they chose flight. With a quick turn of the heel, they sprinted off in the other direction, feet barely touching the ground as they kept running. They tried to ignore the whining that started in their throat as they sprinted faster than they could recall. It had hurt to run, hurt to be moving this quickly, especially in their suit.

But it compared nothing to the hand that grabbed their heart. Well, it felt like a hand and it was thought of their heart. Instead, in reality, it was Sans's blue magic wrapping around their soul itself and dragged them back towards the skeleton. In the back of their throat, they could barely taste the lick of the magic as it pulled them back. It was spicy and hot, almost as if it tasted like-

Oh.

Like it tasted like fire.

Frisk shuddered and closed their eyes, awaiting what death would bring. They tried to ignore the shaking their knees did as they were dragged back, or how they couldn't open their eyes without forcing them to. And they definitely tried to put it out of their mind how much their chest hurt, all from their heart beating so fast, lungs burning, and the fear that had made a nest inside. They continued to be paralyzed for a few seconds before they felt themselves be thrown to the ground. It took another few seconds to unlock their muscles and move again. By the time they did, they could hear sobs coming from across the street.

Careful eyes zoomed around, trying to find the source of the sobbing sounds. When they finally found it, and they were surprised to see the skeleton kneeling on the ground, eyes covered by the bony hands. Sans's back moved up and down with each sob and his body seemed to be shaking from a deeper emotion than anger now. It had hurt Frisk more than his attack seemed to.

Once again, skeletons were very weird. How could they cry without eyes to produce tears?

They slowly approached the monster, feet making a small _smoosh_ sound as they stepped on the melting snow. When they were close enough, Frisk kneeled down next to him. Without knowing really how to comfort him, they simply placed a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed it, showing sympathy for him. He looked up with blue tinted tears on his face. He seemed to be able to express his face like he would've done with muscles, giving Frisk a hurt look.

"Why do ya do that? Why do you keep doing that?" He sobbed again and grabbed them. For a second, the human was scared that the monster would attack them again, but was pleasantly surprised when he instead gave them a big hug. He latched his fingers into their suit jacket and simply clung.

His heart wrenched sobs filled the air and he buried his face in the jacket, holding Frisk closely to them.

After a few minutes of this, of them clinging onto each other, the sobs slowed and he stilled. They didn't say anything, but the moment soon faded and it became that awkward moment of facing the person that let you cry on them. Even if it was your best friend, it was still weird to just cry on them, soaking their suit coat.

Sans cleared his throat, being that person this time.

He looked up at Frisk.

They looked back, worry etched into their face. "Sans?"

He nodded in reply.

"Why did you cry?"

He didn't say anything to them for a second. It was his turn to watch an ant nearby, or hear the cars ages away honking at each other for stupid reasons. But in the end, after a brief moment, he eventually turned to Frisk and studied them.

"Ya gotta realize, I don't do that often. I don't show my feelings if I can help it. But you, Frisk, you always drag them out of me somehow." He looked away again. "I don't know if that's good or not."

Frisk turned to study a wall nearby, giving that space that Sans seemed to need.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Frisk. I'm just not being very fair to you." He took a deep breath. "When the monsters were freed, Frisk, you were the one that freed us. You were our hero, but…" He trailed off for a second to swallow something in his throat that didn't at all seem like another sob. (Frisk definitely didn't see any tears leak out, they won't ever confirm or deny it.) "You did something. And you left. I thought it was for good. And then you come back, here, and don't remember us."

He broke out into another sob. "I thought that you were gone for good, buddy. And now that you are here, I was hoping that we could have what we once did, ya know?" He shook his head violently. "But nope! You don't even fucking remember us," he trembled. "You don't remember Pap, or Aphys, not even Tori," he turned to Frisk, grabbed their shoulders and turned them to face him. "You don't remember me!"

He was springing tears and was trembling all over, it filled their heart with despair and empathy. Wasn't there anything that they could do? All that came to mind was a cheesy move from movies and such that would probably cause the audience to gag or laugh. It was worth a shot, Frisk guessed.

They jumped up and wrapped their arms around Sans, squeezing them tightly. They dug their head into the crook of his bony neck and sighed. "I'm sorry." His arms wrapped around the human and squeezed, sobbing openly again. "We can still try to be friends, if you give me a chance." They whispered it quietly, in case they didn't want to be friends, that way both of them could pretend that he didn't hear it. If that was the case, they could just not be friends. Go their separate ways.

When he nodded, Frisk sighed in relief. They didn't want to leave the monster world just quite yet.

Another ten minutes later, they were walking again.

"Kid, you gotta promise you won't say anything about this to anybody," Sans quietly said. "I don't want the others knowing that I was crying." Frisk turned their head to give them a questioning look. "Like I said, I don't show my emotions enough. If they knew that I did in front of you, I would get them all concerned."

"But I got you to open up," Frisk stated.

"Yeah, but you're the exception."

"Why's that?"

"You're my best friend, aren't you?" He smirked at them and winked at their expression. "Well, soon to be. I need to start pranking you now."

Frisk laughed and continued to walk in silence with them. Well, silence isn't the right word. Sans talked for a while, with a rare comment from their human companion every now and then. He spoke about what he did in the human world, which was a comedian over at the bar. That's why he was over that when he stumbled upon Frisk once more. He had finished his act, got paid, and was on his way. "Usually I would be much earlier, but the guy wanted more acts and signed me up for a few in the future." When Frisk had asked to hear a few of his jokes, he obliged and made them laugh all over again.

Oh yes, Frisk could now see why they were feeling so close with Sans when they first re-met.

But the question was, were they close because of the friendship or more than that? They stopped and asked Sans the question. He chuckled lightly, blushing a tint of blue on his cheekbones, and told them that they weren't dating. "I took you out a few times, just for dinner and the like, but no. We're just good buddies." He smiled at Frisk. "Besides, you're way too young for me."

Frisk stuck their tongue out at the skeleton and gave him a slight push.

Eventually, the two of them had arrived at the village that Sans lived at. Well, it must've been where he lived. There weren't many neighbors around the place. It was closer to the forest, and the dangerous mountain, and most people didn't want to be anywhere near there, especially with the monsters now living there. It was a small village of monsters, except that the city was less than a mile from the city, making it technically a part of the city. Frisk briefly wondered how they had gotten there so quickly, especially with the restaurant they were being miles away.

They dismissed it quickly, just accepting that Sans must've done something. Sans looked smug about something, and Frisk simply agreed with the voice in their head, telling them to dismiss it and continue on.

"When all the monsters came up to the surface, we rebuilt all of our houses. It was a _skeleton_ of work," he cracked a less forced smile at Frisk, smiling more naturally with their laughter. "But we got it done. Papyrus, my bro, and I rebuilt our house like the one we had down there. It looks exactly the same, even the pet rock came along."

Frisk tilted their head. "Yeah, we do have a pet rocky. Pap keeps saying that I need to feed him, but I think sprinkles have enough _minerals."_ Cue the laughter. "His name is Bob. Aw, don't give me that look, kid, it's _hard_ to name a rock." The smile he wore was no longer forced, it seemed to be all natural now. The kid did make him happy, he forgot how much he needed them. It was nice.

Earlier when he broke like that, it was really the first time he had cried over Frisk's death. Yeah, sure, they had a funeral and the like, but only the monsters did. The humans were still scared of the humans at that point, plus, if they had asked for them to accompany them for the funeral, they would've thought the monsters had murdered Frisk or something. And that would have been a great way to start of the relationship they needed to move into their city with.

But anyway, he had really let his emotions run free. He got mad at the kid for being there, being oblivious to what had happened before. He was furious with them for jumping off that damned cliff, for killing themselves so the monsters could be happy. As if they could be anything but happy without Frisk. Sure, they were fine before. But that was...before. It didn't make sense without them being there to see their accomplishments. Frisk was needed. It had angered him that the human parents abandoned Frisk, and that just added fuel to the fire, dragged up haunting memories.

He lost himself. And when he did finally see what he was doing, it broke his heart. How could he have ruined that chance with the human once more? How could he do that? Sure, the kid broke his heart once by doing... _that,_ and broke it again when they didn't remember, but maybe now it would be okay?

Frisk had forgiven them for attacking, now he just had to forgive himself. That would take time, but he'd make it up to them. Maybe he could do something extra fun with them, take them out on one of his breaks or something.

Yeah. That kid would like it. Well, then again, the kid liked anything that they did together, really No, he didn't like them like that, it was weird to think that he ever did. Besides, there was somebody else that was grabbing his attention in that area. But regardless, the human and himself were the best duo, the terrible two, the partners in crime. Nothing came in between them.

He lost attention to what he was doing, but it was quickly brought back when Frisk had nudged him. "What is it, Frisk?" In their hands, was a rock. It was kinda lame looking. Only a gardening rock, nothing special about it. The edges were smooth and soft to the touch. It was a bit wet from the snow, giving it a gleam in the moonlight. "And this is for..what, exactly?"

"A companion for Bob." They smiled. "You can feed them sprinkles too, if you want."

Sans smiled gratefully at the kid, took the rock, and put it in their jacket's pocket. "Thanks, kid. You wanna name it?"

Frisk thought for a second before snapping their fingers. "Shelly."

"Shelly? What kind of name is that?" Sans shrugged and continued walking when he heard Frisk saying that it was a _shelly_ name and they liked it. "Oh, god, kid, I'm already getting my sense of humor rubbed onto ya." He laughed.

"Is that your house?" A small hand pointed up at the house with Christmas lights flashing.

"Yup. That's the place." Sans walked up to the door, turned to the human and grinned. "Ready to meet everybody?"


	5. The One with Papyrus and a Bedtime Story

Sans opened the door with a smile on his face, but Frisk's heart couldn't stop pounding. For some reason, they felt like they were going to be facing something that they weren't prepared for. Like, they knew of a big test that would count for the majority of their grade and chose not to study. Or if they had done something very, very wrong and they had to be the ones that told their parents about it. Whatever the reason, it felt scary to Frisk. They took a hesitant step back, shoulders beginning to tuck back in on themselves, trying to make them smaller.

But after they took a peek out of their bangs, and saw the light with Sans walking into the bright house, they felt a bit better. If the skeleton could do it without guts, surely somebody with them could do it too, right? Besides, Sans had said that these guys were excited to meet Frisk! Or...re-meet, according to him. Whichever it was, Frisk was anxious, but a bit glad. After all, how many times could somebody be actually excited to meet a small, bullied, anxiety filled, ill, neglected, child like them?

With a bit more confidence, they strode through the snow and into the door.

The warmth was the first thing that met their skin. It had greeted them from the cold, wrapped it's arms around the human, and simply clung. It felt nice to be out of the cold, even if it was the perfect weather to Frisk, minus the biting air to their lungs.

The second thing that hit Frisk was the silence. It wasn't silent before they had stepped into the house, no, they could hear the talking from outside. It was incredible how loud the monsters could be from the outside of the house, see Frisk step into the room, and be greeted by the silent, awed expression of a few new monsters from within.

Frisk had noted that Sans did in fact, have a brother and it was very easy to pick out which one it was. A bigger skeleton was sitting on the couch, wearing what seemed to be a Halloween costume. Or at least, a very funny looking outfit, complete with a scarf. Even when sitting down, he was noticeably taller than Sans. Sans wasn't sitting next to him, but judging from his leg size, spine size...or, actually, judging from his general size was key enough to indicate that he was much, much larger than Sans. It had made Frisk wonder who was older for a second, before remember from somewhere that they had that conversation already.

The other monster sitting next to the bigger skeleton was one that Frisk had already met before. The goat lady, Toriel, smiled at Frisk and sipped her tea out of the cup she had sitting on the table. She seemed to be in a good mood, the same as the last Frisk saw her, but she also had adopted a stern look that Frisk had seen mothers give to their children when they had done something bad. "And where were you, Sans? You missed movie night. Everybody left already!"

"Sorry, Tori." Sans shrugged and jumped up onto the couch next to his brother, still watching Frisk with an awed expression, his jawbone extended into a gasping face. "I had to pick something up on my way back."

Toriel sighed and turned back to the human child, smiling a bit more than before. "So I see."

"Yup. They're a great package, great delivery. Even comes with it's own suit for the fancy occasions."

The bigger skeleton kept eyes on the human child, and the look was returned, unable to look away.

"Papyrus," Toriel spoke to the monster. "Do you remember the human child from before?"

The one now dubbed 'Papyrus' turned his head to Toriel before back to Frisk. He stood up rather quickly, hitting his leg bone on the table, but kept walking on towards them as if it never happened. He was much taller than Frisk would've thought. The only really widened part on his body was his rib cage, and that wasn't even really wide. He briefly reminded them of Jack Skellington.

Frisk felt rather shy and imitated by the height of the creature and glanced down and the ground before back up, only to look back down. A few seconds of silence passed on, the skeleton still showing that shocked expression. Frisk had to say something, if they didn't, they felt like things were going to get even more awkward.

"Hi. I'm Frisk." They spoke softly. "You're...Papyrus, right?"

After another brief period of silence, Sans spoke up, asking his brother if he was okay.

The taller skeleton blinked once...twice…

And picked the child up, startling them all. He swung the human child around, clutching them tightly to his chest as he danced around with them in his massive arms. Frisk was caught off guard, but was filled with total glee and laughed as the air around them was swirled into a multitude of color.

"FRISK!" The skeleton shouted loudly. "YOU ARE HERE! YOU ARE ALIVE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS KNEW THINGS WOULD GET BETTER!" He hugged them even tighter, making them stop laughing to make a squeak as their lungs were squished briefly. "AND THE GREAT PAPYRUS MISSED YOU SO!"

Frisk laughed a bit and was released back onto the ground. "NOW I HEAR YOU DON'T REMEMBER VERY MUCH FROM BEFORE." Frisk looked over at Sans, remembering that he had explained to everybody that while, yes, they were in fact, back, they didn't really remember anything. "BUT! I HAVE DECIDED TO MAKE IT A GOAL OF MINE TO MAKE YOU REMEMBER! THAT MEANS MORE SPAGHETTI, MORE HANGING OUT, MORE PUZZLES, MORE OF ANYTHING WE USED TO DO TO GET YOUR MEMORY BACK INTO SHAPE!" If it were possible, he stuck out his chest more with pride. "WE BEGIN TRAINING IMMEDIATELY!"

The human child smiled up at the monster and nodded, telling that he meant very well. And was, apparently, enthusiastic about a lot of things. Once again, the feeling of this guy being a close friend of theirs filled their chest, and was starting to make up for the events that had occurred that evening.

Sans and Toriel smiled from the couch, glad that the meeting had gone well.

After hours of training, the human child was beginning to get exhausted. Papyrus had worked them to the brink of exhaustion and it was starting to show by the way Frisk's head bobbed and their eyes refusing to open anymore. All the movies, games, and snacks had made them feel loved, more than they had before. They were glad that they had come here, but now that they were tired and about to pass out, a threatening thought came to mind.

Were they allowed to stay?

To be honest, Frisk never really had a friend. And with no friends, no sleepovers. In this case, they had no pajamas to sleep in, no toothbrush, they didn't even have a sleeping bag. That's what you bring to a sleepover, right? In some stories that the child heard, nobody sleeps. It clearly was not going to be the case tonight, but all the same. What happens now?

"I THINK THE HUMAN IS TIRED!" Papyrus called in his 'quiet' voice to Toriel and Sans, talking about something in the kitchen. The talking stopped and Frisk could hear their advancing footsteps. CAN THEY STAY WITH US TONIGHT? I DON'T THINK THAT THEY WOULD BE AWAKE IF WE TOOK THEM HOME."

"It's fine with me," Toriel smiled. They didn't need to open their eyes to know that. "But we need to ask their parents."

Frisk opened their eyes sluggishly at that and locked their glance with Sans.

A pregnant pause surrounded them.

"Frisk?" Toriel asked, her smile slowly dabbed away. "Can we call your parents to make sure it's okay if you-"

"I don't want to talk to them." Frisk muttered softly, as if they were bringing up a topic that still hurt to talk about. Oh, no, never mind. The kid's parents had abandoned them again less than a few hours ago. It still hurt to think about it, let alone talk.

"Did something happen?" She asked.

"PERHAPS THE HUMAN DOESN'T WANT TO LEAVE THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" Papyrus suggested, bringing Frisk closer to his rib cage and gently hugging them. "AFTER ALL, I AM GREAT COMPANY."

"You sure are, bro," Sans piped up, coming to Frisk's rescue. "But there's something goin' on with the kid's folks."

"Are they okay?" Toriel turned to Sans with some concern. "If the child needs to stay for a while, that's absolutely okay if the parents-"

"To be frank, I don't really care if they're okay." Sans looked to the side, avoiding Frisk's eyes.

An awkward, tense, silence followed suit and stayed for a moment. It was ended by Papyrus, who sensed that the other two needed to talk about something, and picked up Frisk and started up the stairs. "LET'S GO GET YOU SOME PAJAMAS, OKAY? YOU CAN BORROW SOME OF SANS'S CLOTHES TONIGHT!"

Frisk nodded numbly, half asleep still.

They were put down on Papyrus's bed and was told to stay there for a minute while Pap went to get some of San's clothes. "HIS ROOM IS A MESS," he sighed dramatically. "I DON'T WANT YOUR SMALL MIND TO BE SCARRED FOREVER!"

Frisk could hear some shouting from Toriel and Sans from downstairs. They were trying to keep it contained, but Frisk could still hear the evident hurt from Toriel's voice, and the anger from Sans's. They were definitely fighting (or talking? It was hard to tell just quite yet, having recently meeting them.) about what happened with Frisk and what should be done about it.

"I don't care if they had done that, they have a right to know where their child is, Sans!"

"They also have the responsibility of not leaving their kid on the side of the road in the city! What do you think would've happened if I hadn't found them? You think they'd watch movies with another stranger? Oh, maybe they'd cuddle on the couch too!"

Frisk stood up off of the race car bed, which was extremely cool, and padded over to the door carefully, listening more closely than before.

"Sans! That isn't something that should be said-"

"But it's a very real possibility, Tori! It's better said than done!"

They put their head against the door's crack, listening with a heavy heart.

"But having them stay here forever, without telling their parents?"

"Oh, but them leaving without telling their kid is fine!"

"Sans!"

"Hey, Frisk came down to the mountain for a reason! You know as well as any monster about the legends! Maybe they were running away from their parents! I would!"

Before they could hear what else was being said, the door was opened and Frisk almost tripped over themselves backing up, startled. Papyrus was standing in the doorway, one hand on the doorknob, the other arm carrying some clothes that he had gotten from his brother's room. He seemed to have a bit of a sad expression on his face.

Frisk looked down at the ground and back up to his face.

No words were spoken for a second. The other two were continuing their argument downstairs, their yelling background noise.

Papyrus sighed, picked up the child, and closed the door. "I DON' THINK YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THAT," he said in a nice tone. Frisk liked that tone. "LET'S GET YOU CHANGED INTO PJS, OKAY?" He smiled at the child. They stood on the mattress of the race car as they tugged their jacket off. A faint orange blush filled his cheekbones and it made a small chuckle come out of Frisk's throat. "UM," he started and looked away as he passed them a blue shirt. His high pitched voice went a bit higher with the embarrassment. He leaned in closer to Frisk, holding the shirt in front of him, but close to his chest. He actually managed to whisper, "I DON'T REALLY KNOW YOUR GENDER. DO YOU, UM...WANT ME TO LOOK AWAY?"

Oh.

Frisk hadn't really brought up their gender with the monsters, but somehow they were already familiar with calling them gender neutral terms. It only proved what Sans was saying earlier that they had known each other before. And that they cared. And that they loved Frisk enough to actually follow through with it.

And judging from how he was reacting, he hadn't been told or asked what Frisk's true gender was. Honestly, gender didn't really matter to Frisk, but it was still a good sign he was asking, and was embarrassed by it (which had made Frisk a bit happier, honestly.).

"I don't care if you look," Frisk smiled. "Thanks for asking."

He leaned back and smiled, a bit proud. "OF COURSE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS CARES FOR HIS FRIENDS! NOW," he set the shirt off to the side. "LET'S GET YOU CHANGED FOR THE GREATEST SLEEPOVER EVER!"

He helped them change into their pants, which wasn't very hard. His hand was keeping them steady on their back as they were still standing on the springy mattress. He had the decency to look away at times, but overall wasn't really phased by it. In fact, neither party really minded. He was helping one of his best friends, one that was only just hitting double digits, change into pajamas. If there was something inappropriate happening, neither would care because they were only friends.

"OKAY, THE PANTS ARE DONE. TIME FOR THE SHIRT. ARMS UP!" He threw his arms up in the air for a dramatic effect that drew some giggles from the child.

Frisk raised their arms up as skeletal fingers worked on unbuttoning their white dress shirt. Once all of them were properly unbuttoned, he removed the shirt and placed the blue shirt on over their head and arms. The shirt was too big, but it worked perfectly as a pj shirt. Before Frisk had the chance, Papyrus poked their armpits, causing a stream of giggles to burst out.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I FOUND WHERE THE HUMAN'S TICKLE SPOT IS!" He continued to tickle them, pulling their laugher out of their chest. His thin fingers were excellent to gently prod the skin to get the best laughter out. "QUICK , SANS!" He playfully called over his shoulder. "I CAUGHT A HUMAN. WE CAN TAKE THEM TO-" He trailed off, slightly put off. "WELL, WE CAN TAKE THEM TO THE BED!" He picked up Frisk and jumped onto his racecar bed, arms around the human in a loving embrace.

"THE HUMAN IS CAPTURED!" He laughed in their ear, and despite being half asleep and upset only minutes ago, Frisk laughed. Genuinely, truly, laughed. "YOU MIGHT NOT GET THE REFERENCE, BUT THAT'S OKAY," his hand ruffled their hair. "WE CAN FILL YOU IN LATER!"

Frisk smiled and nodded. That sounded good. Any time with these monsters, Frisk was finding out, was better than the funnest time they ever had with their human companions.

Papyrus still held the child in his long, bony arms. He was a bit upset over what happened, he didn't even know what happened but could tell that something was wrong, but had to keep his friend happy. Especially because how happy they made him! They weren't dead! They were ALIVE!

Frisk seemed to still. The skeleton sighed.

"FRISK," he spoke up. "I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S GOING ON RIGHT NOW," He turned to them. "BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WHATEVER YOU'RE GOING THROUGH, YOUR FRIENDS HAVE YOUR BACK! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL ALWAYS BE BESIDE YOU" He hugged them tightly. "I'L PROTECT YOU FROM WHATEVER COMES OUR WAY!"

Frisk smiled, hugged his rib cage tightly, and sighed into it. "Thank you, Papyrus."

He chuckled warmly and rubbed their back. It was a minute of silence before the thought of the argument ending occurred to the two of them. "I THINK THEY'RE DONE FIGHTING. DO YOU WANT A STORY BEFORE BED? I CAN'T EVER SLEEP WITHOUT ONE."

Frisk nodded and watched as Papyrus shifted his body, bringing the blanket over the two of them. " _SANS_!" He shouted loudly, his normal voice seeming like it was at a normal interval. "THE HUMAN AND I ARE IN NEED OF A STORY!"

The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs filled their ears and Papyrus shrugged a bit lower in their bed, snuggling with Frisk happily. "I HOPE IT'S OKAY THAT YOU SLEEP WITH ME TONIGHT, I CAN'T BARE TO HAVE YOU STAY ON THE COUCH ALONE!"

To be honest, Frisk really didn't mind. They didn't think that they could handle being alone right now.

Papyrus smiled at turned sharply at the door. "BROTHER! THE STORY!"

Sans came into the room and smiled at the two of them. "Oh, yeah? And what story do you want tonight?"

Papyrus was about to answer, before tilting his skull. "Where did Toriel go?"

"She went home. She does have a bedtime too, ya know." Sans shrugged.

"Hm. Well, okay." The two skeletons turned to you. "What story do you want?"

Their brown eyes shifted over to the bookshelf across the room. It was filled with books, but one in particular caught their eye. It was a fairly large book with gold patterns swirling around the book in an elegant dance. It was pretty marvelous. The letters were too small to read from afar, so instead, Frisk simply pointed to the book as best as they could and described the book.

"OH, THE FAIRY TALE BOOK OF LEGENDS!" Papyrus brought the blanket closer to them in excitement. "READ THE ONE WITH THE DRAGON, THAT ONE IS BY FAR THE BEST!"

Sans chuckled, got the book and the chair from the desk and brought both over next to the bed. "Alright. Comfy?" He glanced up at the both of them snuggling under the blanket and chuckled. "Here we go."

 _"Once upon a time, there was a very special monster. They were very special because they would do something very, very great when they got older. They would lead all the other monsters to freedom from being trapped by the darkness. Most people didn't think this monster would do great things because they were a small child. And nobody, young or old, strong or weak could defeat the darkness that kept them all trapped. But the monster and their friends knew that they could do anything they wanted._

 _"This monster was also special because in order to do the great release, they would die three times. The first time was because they got very sick. The second was because they had to save those that they loved. The third time was because of both from the first and the second. This monster was very brave for continuing to fight for what they wanted, despite being ill or scared of dying."_

Papyrus groaned. "SAAAANS, LET US SEE THE PICTURES!"

"Oh, right."

He held up the book pages to show them the picture of a monster child in bed, with silhouettes of other monsters surrounding them. They must've died one of the three times.

 _"In the first life, they did some bad things, but felt bad for it. That's why in the second life, they were good to everybody they met. In this life, they were able to do something great and made all of the monsters happy because of their actions. The monster child was able to make everybody be free!_

 _"But the darkness wasn't happy. They were mad at the child for making all of the monsters go away. With the darkness not happy, it had caused the monsters to be scared again. Unless the child would go with the darkness and become apart of it, the darkness would swallow the monsters and make them disappear too."_

A dark cloud looking shape covered the page, and in the middle of it was the monster child from before. They looked determined.

 _"So the child went. The monster's friends were very sad and left. But it's okay! Because that was only the second life. The third life was coming!_

 _"A year later, the monster came back to life. They were happy to see their friends again. But the darkness felt cheated and began to fight the monsters, taking one every day until the child came back. Well, one day, the child grew sick again. Afraid for their friend, the monsters soon gave themselves up in hopes that their friend would get well soon."_

"THIS IS THE BEST PART," Papyrus said to himself, or perhaps to one of the other two. Either way, Sans smirked and continued on.

 _"But it wasn't the darkness who made them ill. When the child heard what happened to their friends, they grew upset. They didn't care if they got more sick! They didn't care if they had to take the icky medicine when they got back! They would go get their friends from the darkness._

 _Along the way, a brave dragon joined with the monster, impressed by what had happened. The dragon wasn't very big either and wanted to do great things. He roared a mighty roar to show his worth," Sans and Papyrus did an impression of the roar that made Frisk laugh and join in at the end, "And the monster agreed to let them come with."_

 _"The dragon and the monster flew to the darkness and fought a mighty battle! Tears were shed, punches were thrown, words were said!_

 _"And in the end, the monster and the dragon defeated the darkness! The darkness gave up and said that they would never, ever, go near the monsters again. The monsters were happy, and the dragons were happy too! Now they could all be happy together!_

 _"But the monster child wasn't happy. They were worse than before and felt very bad. Their throat was sore, and their tummy hurt too."_

"This is the sad part, Pap. Want me to skip it?"

Frisk hadn't noticed, but Papyrus was starting to tear up. "NO,NO I AM FINE. THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOESN'T SKIP PARTS, EVEN IF THEY ARE SAD!"

"I know," Sans chuckled. "I still remember having to sleep with you after the dog died."

"MARLEY AND ME WAS THE SADDEST MOVIE EVER TO BE CREATED!" Papyrus began to cry again and Sans quickly turned back to the story to distract his brother.

 _"The child died the next day. All the doctors the monsters had couldn't fix the child. Everybody waited for them to return, but they never died. The monster's friends continue to wait for them, year after year, hoping that they return soon. And they still wait for them now."_

"Alrighty, kids, that's the end. It's time for bed." Sans closed the book and returned both the chair and the book to their proper place. Papyrus was content with that and snuggled into the bed more, closing his eyes. "Night, bro. Night, kid." Sans smiled at them, but something was bothering them.

"You okay, kid?"

"Um." Frisk looked at the brothers. "Is that a true story?"

"What? That old one I just read?" Sans waved his hand in the air. "No. Even if it were real, it's just a legend. Besides, dragons don't like monsters. They hate us, we hate them. Best for everybody if we just stayed away from each other."

"Dragons are real!?" Frisk sat up in bed.

"Eyup. But don't ever go near one if you see one, Frisk." Sans warned. "Not all the human here are nice, and none of the dragons are nice."

"THAT IS RIGHT, HUMAN," Papyrus chimed in. "NOT EVEN I WILL GO NEAR A DRAGON. ME!" He shuddered visibly. "THEY ARE TOO MEAN!"

Frisk said nothing, but thought about Toothless from a movie that they watched a while back. He seemed mean but turned out to be nice. Maybe it was the same case? When they voiced that, the skeletons shared a look and turned back to the human. "Sure, kid," Sans smiled. "Maybe you could change them back. But don't try. I'd rather not lose you." He had to bite his figurative tongue from saying again.

"We're gonna take you back to your parents in the morning and have a small talk with them." He told them as he turned off the light. "We'll leave after breakfast, okay?"

"WAFFLES FOR BREAKFAST!" Papyrus smiled. "UNDYNE MIGHT COME OVER AND SHOW US HOW TO MAKE THEM!"

"Toriel is coming over before hand," Sans reminded his brother. "I think she can do a better job of not settin' our place on fire again."

Frisk, instead of their normally weird dreams, dreamt of them being the monster child. Their parents were the darkness and their monsters friends had their back. It was a nice dream, one that didn't last as long as Frisk wanted.

Dreams never really seemed to.


	6. The One with Waffles and a Home Visit

The scent of waffles was the first thing that made Frisk somewhat conscious in the morning. The second thing was the pounding of footsteps up the stairs and the door slamming open to Papyrus's room. They practically jumped up into a sitting position at the sudden noise change and had to blink at the newcomer.

There stood a fish. But a person. A fish person? (It had made some sense to Frisk, after all, there was a goat lady down there that had been their artificial guardian.) Regardless, the fish lady had striking red hair, huge earfins, blue scaly skin, and yellow eyes. Her, and it was clearly a female physically, teeth that looked like they could bite through bone, and muscles that lined her body.

"FRISK!" The lady shouted, grabbed their arm, and ripped them out of the bed. "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S REALLY YOU!" They swung Frisk around the air in their arms, as if they were a cherished prize won at a carnival and they had to do a victory dance. "YOU'RE HERE!"

Papyrus leaned out of bed and watched the display with a confused and dazed expression on his face. Then he woke up some more and realized that his friend was being grabbed by his friend in their friendship reunion and wanted to hug his friends. "UNDYNE! THE HUMAN IS BACK!"

The one now called Undyne looked at Papyrus with a sharp smile. "It's the best!"

Bony arms wrapped around the two and Frisk never felt more pressure to be loved.

"When did they get here?!"

"LAST NIGHT THEY CAME HERE TO HAVE A SLEEPOVER WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

Frisk was brought up to view the hurt expression of the fish lady. "Why didn't you have one over at my house, it's totally better than this! Plus I'm your best friend!"

"UM, UNDYNE, I'M SORRY TO BREAK IT TO YOU," Papyrus seemed to chuckle at that and plucked the human from the ex-royal guard leader's hands. "BUT I AM THE HUMAN'S BEST FRIEND."

"Uh, no. Hate to burst your bony bubble, but clearly we're bffs." Again, she pulled Frisk to her.

"NO, WE ARE THE BFFS!" To Papyrus.

"THAT'S A LIE!" Back to Undyne.

"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS!" Hey, Papyrus. Long time no see.

"YOU'RE THE JEALOUS ONE!" Oh, hey Undyne. How goes the dating life?

This continued on for a few seconds before Alphys came running back up the steps and stopped in front of the door. "W-what's going on here?"

"PAPYRUS REFUSES TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I'M THE HUMAN'S BEST FRIEND!" Undyne screeched as she pulled Frisk back over to her.

"Um, remember what I told you about them? That they c-can't remember us?" Alphys carefully placed a hand on top of their head when she took a step further into the room. "T-they probably don't even know who you are."

Undyne froze.

Papyrus froze.

Alphys watched carefully.

Frisk had no idea what was going on.

"You were serious?" Undyne's voice was a lot softer than what one would expect it to be. It was delicate, like the surface of the water. If it weren't laced with what seemed to be hurt, Frisk would've enjoyed that a lot more.

"Unfortunately," the lizard girl grimaced.

"Oh." Undyne carefully set Frisk on the ground. "Sorry, I didn't think she was being serious," she glanced the other way. "I guess I kinda scared you, huh?"

Frisk shook their head and smiled kindly.

"Wow, really?" Undyne grinned a bit and slapped Frisk's back, sending them to the floor, with a laugh. "Tough as ever, Frisk!"

"Breakfast is ready!" Toriel's sweet voice carried upstairs. "Come and get something to eat."

"YEAH! WAFFLES!" Undyne punched a fist in the air and ran out of the room over to the banister, whose purpose was to keep people from falling, and jumped over it.

Alphys watched with a starstruck expression and ran after her girlfriend, thought down the stairs.

Frisk looked up at Papyrus, who was waiting for them, and beamed at his smile. "UNDYNE IS COOL, ISN'T SHE? SHE'S TRAINING ME, YOU KNOW! SOON I'LL BE AS TOUGH AS HER." He tilted his head and his grin faltered. "ER..WELL, AT LEAST A GOOD COOK!"

He went to join the others downstairs and motioned Frisk to follow.

Frisk paused at this. Never before had they had an actual family breakfast! It was a new treat. Usually for their breakfast at their human household, they would get a bowl of cereal and eat in front of the tv while they waited for their parents to get back from wherever they went off to early in the morning. There wasn't one morning that Frisk could remember where they had all gone out to eat somewhere before. So, of course, Frisk went to join them with a smile on their face. No way they would miss this!

It didn't occur to them that they had thought of it as a family breakfast without hesitation.

Downstairs it was chaos, to say the least. Monsters, mostly just Papyrus and Undyne, were fighting each other for whatever seat they wanted, who got which waffle, even the syrup bottle was under attack and was being thrown across the room. And this was before the silverware was set out. Sans and Toriel were already down there, trying to keep order, but failing spectacularly. It brought a smile to Frisk's face.

"FRISK!" Papyrus shouted the name over the disarray. "COME SIT BY ME!"

"No!" Undyne shouted louder, "sit by me! I'll show you how to cut up your waffles properly!" Out of nowhere, a spear appeared and was being twirled around, pointy side swinging everywhere to show off to the human.

"Oh, now that is enough!" Toriel stood up with her hands on her hips. "You'll put that away, sit down, and eat your breakfast quietly or so help me, I will make sure you aren't able to hold your spear!" Her voice shocked even Undyne it seemed as the fish obeyed and did as she was told to do. Toriel turned towards Frisk and took a deep breath. "Hello, my child. Did you sleep okay?"

Frisk smiled and nodded. Oh yes, this was much better than what breakfast was like before.

The waffles were fluffy and warm, and the syrup that accompanied them had melted in their mouth upon the first bite. These were the perfectly made waffles that almost sang when you tore them apart, one could hear the slight pulling sound that they had made. The golden brown breakfast luxuries were crafted by fine hands, Frisk came to discover as they reached across for another waffle. This was their...fourth? Fifth? They lost count. They hadn't had a homemade breakfast in...well, they couldn't remember. It had been too long.

If somebody had to think about when their last had a waffle, it's been too long.

Flashbacks to the dinner the previous night came to Frisk, making them nervous about two things. The first was that the breakfast would go like it did last night. No children's play, no talking, strictly politics and adults talking, no fun or love seen at the table. (This meal was the exact opposite of that, letting Frisk smile and eat as much as they wanted. It was a competition of who could eat the most, and Frisk thought they were doing well but had to give up. At one point they had to due to the monsters being on their tenth waffle when Frisk reached for their third. Toriel had a special iron that made the waffles have snails on them pressed into the middle. Nobody complained about it, rather, it made Frisk feel more at home than ever before.) The second thing that made Frisk nervous was the confrontation after this.

The breakfast was so good, they didn't want this to end. Especially for something like that. It was awful and Frisk didn't want to go through with it. If the monsters could only just drop them off at the doorstep to get their belongings and come back to live with them, that would be best for everybody, right?

But no. It seemed like the monsters were very upset over their parents' actions. Sans had explained what they did last night and Frisk couldn't bear to look anywhere but at the snail waffle. He was using his serious, no jokes or puns, voice and it was hard to hear. It hurt to hear. It was upsetting to think that the child themself was the cause for him to use that voice.

"The question isn't what we should do. It's who should go." Toriel crossed her arms and folded them in her lap. "I know that I'm going to have a very strongly worded discussion with that woman, but I don't know what the rest of you want to do."

"Well, it's obvious," Undyne spoke up. "We go and have a talk with both of them." She punched her palm threateningly. "Nobody can do that to my best friend!"

"We shouldn't use violence," Alphys reasoned. "It'll make things worse."

"And why not?" Sans glared across the table at her. "It's the right thing to do."

Alphys sighed and gave him a desperate look. It'll make them not like us and they might take it out on Frisk."

Oh.

Pairs of eyes swerved over to where the human in question sat, poking at their waffles. They knew that they were suppose to say something, after all, it was their parents. They should have a voice in it. But, honestly, they didn't want to say anything. It was what the monsters were going to do, so why stop them?

Frisk sighed and looked at Papyrus. "Can I go change?"

"OF COURSE, HUMAN!" He smiled. "DO YOU REQUIRE MY ASSISTANCE?" Frisk knew that he might not have wanted to be apart of this, he was oddly quiet throughout the entire thing. And it made them somewhat upset to see him like that. So, to appease him, they nodded their head as they got up and made their way up the stairs, the taller skeleton following.

Once they got to the room, Frisk flopped themselves on to the race car of a bed and buried their face into the pillow. They heard the door closing softly into place as Papyrus had closed the door behind them and felt the mattress sink a bit as he sat down next to them.

"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" His voice was coated with worry as he placed his hand on their shoulder.

Frisk shook their head no.

"WELL, DON'T WORRY, HUMAN. WE'LL GET EVERYTHING FIGURED OUT WITH YOUR PARENTAL UNITS. JUST YOU WATCH, WE'LL-"

"I don't want you guys to go fight them!" Frisk turned their head to the side, letting him hear their hurt voice and see the tear streaming down their face silently. "I don't want you guys to go talk to them!"

His expression was one of empathy and he seemed to be generally upset that Frisk wasn't okay at the moment, or reassured of his ability to help.

"WELL, FRISK, WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

Tiny shoulders shrugged as their owner buried themselves deep into the pillow again. They felt a bony hand rest upon them and gently tug Frisk towards his chest once more. "FRISK, WHAT DO SMALL CHILDREN DO AT SCHOOL UNITS?"

The question was so unexpected and obvious that Frisk had to blink a few times before answering. "They learn."

"AND WHY DO THEY GO BACK EVERYDAY?"

"To keep that knowledge and learn more?"

His chuckle vibrated deep within his ribs, echoing in the empty room. "EXACTLY, THAT IS WHAT YOUR JOB IS AS A HUMAN CHILD. NOW! WHAT ARE YOU PARENTS SUPPOSE TO DO AS A JOB?"

"My mom doesn't have to work because Py-"

"NO, NO, NO. I MEAN WHAT DO THEY DO AT HOME?"

"They usually aren't home. And when they are," Frisk shrugged. "They don't really talk to me."

Papyrus closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reopened them. He felt more desperate to make this child see than before. "WELL, FRISK, THEY AREN'T DOING THEIR JOB CORRECTLY."

Frisk tilted their head in question.

"A MONSTER PARENTS TAKES CARE OF THEIR YOUNH. THEY PAY ATTENTION TO THEM, KEEP THEM IN LINE, AND TEACH THEM RIGHT FROM WRONG. HOW CAN YOUR PARENTS DO THAT IF THEY AREN'T EVER HOME WITH YOU?"

Frisk thought about it for a second. That was a good question. They went to school every day to learn, retain, and prove that they knew the material. If they were to learn from their parents, who were barely there at all and didn't pay attention, how would they learn? "I guess I have to...pay attention and learn in clumps?" At his face falling, Frisk quickly continued to make sure he understood where they were coming from. "Like cram-studying before an exam!"

"NO, HUMAN." Papyrus placed his massive hands on either side of their face. "THAT IS NOT RIGHT. THEY AREN'T DOING THEIR JOBS CORRECTLY AND THAT AFFECTS YOU. YOU WON'T LEARN WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER FOR YOU TO BE AS GREAT AS ME," he smiled softly. "YOU NEED THEM TO BE THERE FOR YOU MORE OFTEN AND NOT LEAVE YOU. THAT'S WHY WE NEED TO GO TALK TO THEM, SO YOU CAN LEARN BETTER." He grinned and hugged Frisk tightly. "AND IF THAT DOESN'T GO WELL, WELL...WE CAN CROSS THAT BRIDGE LATER."

"BUT UNTIL THEN!" He stood, the child in his arms. "YOUR BEST FRIEND IS HERE TO HELP YOU CHANGE!"

The drive over there was tense, to say the least.

Toriel was driving, Sans was in the front seat next to her, Papyrus, Frisk, and Alphys rode in the middle with Undyne in the back seat. No words were spoken between anybody. Frisk was stuck in the middle seat, the direct center of the car. They didn't really care, but it would've been nicer to have a window seat in case they got car sick. Or worse, their asthma was triggered. Dear lord, please none of that today.

It was getting stressful as is, it would just get worse if they had to leave the room when the monsters were yelling at their parents. It would get out of control if that were the case.

But all too soon, they pulled up next to the apartment building. Toriel asked if this was the place, and Frisk numbly nodded, faintly aware of everybody shuffling out of the car. They ran their hand through the peach fuzz hair that they bore, thanks to their mother, before they got out of the car as well. Frisk took a deep breath as they looked across at the determined faces of the monsters before nodding to themselves and walking ahead to the door, holding it open for the monsters.

Sans came up next to them once he passed through the opened door to reassure the kid. "Hey, listen. This really will be okay." He smiled at them. "I'm a humerus guy, but tibia serious guy for a second, it'll be fine. I wouldn't fibia you." He smiled, expecting them to laugh, but instead, they just smiled awkwardly at them before closing the door. "Seriously, Frisk, it'll be okay."

They didn't believe that very much.

He could tell. He sighed, ran his hand over his face, making an interesting scraping noise that got Frisk's attention further and wondering if that hurt.

"Kid," he sighed and placed an arm around them as he guided them to the elevator, where the others were waiting. "Listen, you helped us once with something that troubled all of us for years. Now let us help something that troubled you for years, and apparently," his voice became darker, "still does."

The elevator seemed a lot more cramped with all of the monsters piled inside. They could barely see the walls through the bodies,excluding the see through spaces on the skeletons. The elevator kept chiming on, mutely beeping at each floor passed. Each beep filled the human with more and more anxiety. The air around them became very humid and hard to breathe. But they had to keep breathing, taking a deep breath in that lasted for five seconds. Out for five. In. Out.

They forced their lungs to breathe.

They had to focus. Fo-cus. It's all okay, it's okay.

Frisk couldn't move when the elevator dinged loudly, alerting the passengers that the desired floor was now in front of them. Frisk was the person closest to the door and only moved when prompted by those behind them. Frisk couldn't hear them, they only knew that they were being prompted to get off and let everybody else do the same. With no argument, they had run out of it, they moved.

The monsters filed off the elevator.

"Which one is it, Frisk?" Frisk thought about those words. Which one...what? Lead back downstairs?

 _No. Come on, Frisk,_ the child thought to themselves. _This will make things better. Papyrus said so. Sans said so. They wouldn't lie to you. You're like family already._ They tried to ignore the voice telling them that their family had lied to you more than than anything else, especially the truth. The truth was a curse in their family. _Not this one._

With a slight tremble, Frisk marched up to the door around the corner that was their familiar door. The golden numbers shown brightly underneath the peephole.

 _They're helping you. It's okay._

It's okay.

With a braver hand, it wasn't even trembling, Frisk raised their hand and knocked on the door a solid three times. Before the door answered, they felt a weight on their shoulder. They turned and saw snow white fur on them. It was Toriel's hand, gently squeezing it.

"When we get inside, go to your room and gather your belongings. Alphys will help you." She smiled sweetly at Frisk. And Frisk, feeling more relief in their lungs, exhaled and smiled back.

The door opened at that moment, with them smiling up at a huge monster, holding their shoulder and smiling down at them. Frisk turned their head, fully ready to see their mother, with a shocked expression. Ready to let the monsters tell them off for abandonment and asking if Frisk could stay with them if that was the way that things were run around here. They were fully ready for anything that came their way. The only thing that they weren't prepared for was-

Pyrope stood in the doorway, anger emident on his face and knuckles turning white on the doorknob. His hatred toward monsters was very prominent and showed in every tense muscle.

-that.

Things were not going well. These things didn't go well in any case, but when they have a bunch of monsters telling their speciest (was that the right word? Like racist only for species?) parents off for being horrible and awful to their kid, things get even worse. Frisk only barely escaped to their room, Alphys not even able to come. They wanted all monsters in one place so no 'funny business' goes on without them knowing about it. The only thing that made them somewhat happy was that idea. All monsters, physically and personally, were in the living room, alright.

Pyrope especially was a horrible demon from hell. He only cared about money, monsters, and politics. It was ridiculous. He had even said that if his career was to somehow be put off or he lost whatever election he was going for, he'd be dead. That it would be the end of him. If he were fighting for something good, Frisk supposed that they would get some empathy from them, but they weren't. They were simply evil and neither parent was able to see that. But the monsters could, and Frisk was glad that they were standing up for the human child. Frisk didn't think that they could.

Frisk could hear them yelling about them. It wasn't anything nice either. By far the loudest was Toriel, but Pyrope was showing a good second place. Currently, they were arguing about how they left them in the middle of the city at night and demanding to know how often that happens. Deep down, Frisk was sure that they already knew some of the answers, but wanted to hear them for themselves.

Which normally, would be okay. But combined with the stress, the cold air from outside, and the already existing pressure on their chest, breathing was becoming a problem for the child. They tried to focus on the breathing exercises they read online, but they were quickly finding out that today there were not working. And this was a problem.

Before they could really do much of anything about it, Frisk heard their name being screeched from across the apartment. They decided to leave their suitcase full of half-wanted clothes and went out to the living room, somewhat leaning against the wall, their hand pushing themself along.

"Frisk, would you mind telling us why you spent the night at these...these _monsters'_ house?!" Their mother whipped her hand around in the air. "You know you should've come home!"

"Do they? Do they really know that?" Sans piped up. Frisk looked over to him and almost gasped (they would've if they knew that it wouldn't end in coughing fits) at his expression. His face was more dark entirely and he looked very close to losing what little patience he had left. They looked down at his hands to see a wisp of blue flame fade away as his hands shook. They had to drag their attention back to the words being spoken. "Because from what it looks like, they would've had a hell of a time getting here by themselves."

"There will be no cursing in front of my daughter!" Pyrope shouted, stomping his foot like a little kid. He even scrunched up his eyes and his face was turning red. "I want manners, dammit!"

"Yeah, way to play by your rules," Undyne scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest.

"FRISK!" Their mother screeched at a very high pitched level. The child being summoned by the annoying women bid farewell to the wall and stepped forward. "Explain!"

They shifted their weight on their feet and grabbed the hem of their trusty striped sweater (now changed into their own clothes) nervously. "They're my friends," they stated simply, clearly obvious to anybody who cared enough to see.

"Humans and monsters cannot be friends, you are aware of this, why are you lying?" Pyrope retorted analytically. "You know better than to lie to us."

"I'm not lying," they say slowly, unsure of how things were going now. "They're my friends."

"You have human friends, Frisk. Why not go over to their house?" Both parents now had angry little kid faces on.

"I don't have human friends." They stated again. "You should know that." They'd be home alone a lot less if they did.

"Didn't you just say that they should've gone back here?" Toriel put their hands on their hips and leaned over on one leg. "Why the change of heart?"

"Stay OUT of this, monster!" Pyrope roared and turned back to Frisk. He marched up to them, grabbed them by their arm and dragged them aside, letting his wife handle the monsters for the time being. "What did they do to you to make you think that they were your friends? Huh? Did they brainwash you? Threaten us?"

"They are my friends, they didn't do anything," Frisk's voice got fragile and their knees were visibly starting to shake. Their breathing was coming in pants as panic slowly started to set on Frisk.

"That's a lie, Frisk." He leaned forward. "Monsters are evil, they don't do nice things. I thought that you should've learned that by now."

"No they-"

"Frisk, do you realize why they have those bracelets on? So they won't hurt us. So that they won't go into schools and kill, so they won't go into banks and steal our hard earned money. Don't you see that?"

"But they wouldn't! Nobody's proved that they would-"

"Why would we take the risk? You wouldn't understand, I know that you're still young, and aren't bright at that, but even still. You must see the danger that they pose!"

"Hey!" Frisk gathered some of their courage and took a wobbly step forward. "They've been nicer to me than you guys!" The child raised their voice without thinking. They continued on, knees shaking now. "In twenty-four hours, they've been more of a family to me than you ever will!"

"Frisk!" His face grew into an angry red. "You will-"

"No," they breathed heavily. This felt so right! Standing up for themself was a really, really, good feeling. Frisk continued on, more excitement in their voice despite the venom that leaked in. If their friends would defend them, they would defend their friends. "No, I won't. Just because you're so tied up in your political world and can't see how blind you are to something so pure-"

 _SLAP_

Frisk felt the sting before they could comprehend what really happened.

The sound had silenced the entire room.

Their entire body was shaking so much that Frisk had to wait a few seconds before they were able to lift their hand to their face to barely touch their red skin. Their heart was racing so fast, their breathing stopped altogether. It took a few more seconds for their brain to catch up with them. They were on the floor now. The hit had made them fall, their knees were barely able to support them enough as is, now they were on the floor. Their body was shaking. Their heart was racing.

Frisk couldn't think straight anymore.

Dully aware of more shouting and a yellow figure running over to your side, Frisk tried to start breathing again. Wait. No, that's not right. Their throat felt closed off with an invisible rope tied around their throat, choking them. This wasn't right. Why couldn't they breathe?

"...sk? Frisk!" Alphys laid their hands on their shoulder and gently probed them to look up. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Frisk shook their head and continued in vain to breathe again. There were dark spots slowly filling their vision as their body continued to shake violently, tears streaming down their face. They couldn't hear the yelling, screaming, crying, none of that was audible to them as they focused solely on the task of inhaling air to make their head less light.

More yellow filled their vision. They numbly heard something about breathing and shook their head. No, no, they couldn't breathe.

More tears filled their eyes and they became more desperate to inhale as even more panic was introduced into their veins.

"F-Frisk, c-c-calm down, you're gonna make y-your body overexert itself!" The yellow blob tried to calm them down but it wasn't working very well. "Guys! Guys!" They turned around to say something in the background. Frisk couldn't hear what it was.

Like in the dreams, things became very blurred and swirled all around them.

Things became very fuzzy.

Words became very fuzzy too, though they recognized the words "asthma attack," and nothing else.

They couldn't recognize anything else after that point.

Frisk was tired.

So tired.

They went to sleep.

 **In case y'all couldn't tell, Frisk had an asthma attack due to many things. It'll be explained more in the next chapter, but basically, they went years without treatment, stress was built up, and the slap that took their breath away really didn't help much of anything.**

 **But yay for two chapters in a day!**


	7. The One at the Hospital

_An alarming thought to anybody listening to this. This dream was different._

 _It wasn't like it normally was, where Frisk was one of the people in it, or even looking upon it from above. Frisk was falling. They weren't even completely sure that it was a dream. It could've been a lot of things, ranging from simply a daydream that they were too caught up into something as extreme like a coma...in fact, now that they thought about it, it was probably a coma. Their chest had felt like a popped balloon, no longer able to expand. Their lungs were busted._

 _Another alarming thought. Frisk was dead._

 _The experience was indescribable. Yet. Frisk would try to explain. If anybody was going to understand, it was probably themselves, or those who bothered to listen to their pleas. And they needed to think of something anyway to not go crazy._

 _Frisk was falling through colors, sounds, life, memories, everything blurred like their dreams. But these memories didn't belong to them, they were all new. Everything was blurring together all around them, surrounding them like water in a pool. They felt like they were floating softly in the pool, just barely underneath the surface of the water. They wanted to open their eyes, but they couldn't. Something was telling them it wasn't time to open their eyes yet._

 _Maybe they were being judged. Their mother had always said that when people die, there would be a man up in heaven to judge their life to see if they were good enough to be in heaven. Maybe all these memories were other people's memories and that they were in the equivalent to a waiting room._

 _But that didn't make any sense. They weren't able to see, but they knew that there were memories and everything like that floating around them in a haze. Even despite that, they could hear the colors. They could taste the nostalgia surrounded the memories, flickering with familiarity like a flames on a birthday cake. The colors and memories spoke to them, grabbed their skin, pricking their body for attention. Every now and then, Frisk was able to hear a voice. It was muddy, as if spoken to them while they were under water. What the voices were saying didn't make any sense to them though. And, like the dreams before, parts were missing._

"...rate is dropping, need the….stat!"

"What...history?"

"Do they...before?"

 _They continued to float. They didn't know how long they were there, silently asleep with everything going on around them. They were still in this waiting room of peace. Frisk felt a little nervous for their judgement, but had never felt safer than they did in that abyss of color, of life. It was peaceful, it was warm, it was a sanctuary from the outside world._

 _And right now they really didn't want to face the outside world. Not with what just happened. They would really rather just stay in the abyss for a while longer._

 _Then, just as they were thinking about staying here forever, their feet felt something underneath them and they touched the grassy ground beneath their feet and stood, getting up from the pool of color at last. They didn't open their eyes just yet, still feeling that it was not the right time to do so. But, they did feel the grass springing up between their toes. They still felt the soft soil being squeezed beneath their feet. They could feel the soft green plants underneath them, brown underneath that. They were able to feel the life that was coming from around them. If they listened closely, they could be able to hear some chirping in the distance. Bats and crickets._

 _It was nighttime._

 _But where was it night?_

" _Frisk?"_

 _They opened their eyes._

 _They were in a meadow. Yellow flowers surrounded them like water in the ocean, covering the green, grassy, meadow in a light, soft color. The moon was so big that it didn't seem natural to the human child, but they accepted it regardless. Something had told them that they had seen a lot weirder. The meadow was beautiful even with the strange moon, and the flowers only added to the beauty. It had brought a small smile to the child as they reached down to take a cursory glance at the flowers. They were pretty._

" _Frisk!"_

 _They looked up._

 _There, in the distance, was a figure._

The first thing that the human had actually felt with their senses was the soft cotton beneath their fingertips. They could feel the threads carefully sewn together in a strict formation that formed into a gentle sheet that was currently covering their body. The scent of soft flowers on the sheet were present as well, giving them an impression that the sheets were recently washed. That was clue number one to where they were. They didn't know how to do laundry just yet and their parents scarcely washed their sheets. Frisk was not at their (human) home, that was for sure. They weren't sure about the monsters. Did they have to do laundry as well? Frisk liked to think so. It'd be weird to not do laundry!

The second thing that they had felt was something poking their skin in two different areas. One was the part of the top of their hand and the other was the inner part of their elbow. It was a weird feeling, something was holding it in place but it didn't quite feel normal. Like rubbery tape? And what was poking them? It didn't feel like it was hurting really, but it didn't feel right. They didn't particularly have anything quite like that as far as Frisk knew, so they weren't somewhere that they had a bunch of belongings. That ruled out school and home, the only places that Frisk visited the most...or at all.

Along with the unfamiliar, funny poking feeling that they had felt on their arm, they had something like that on their face. They could only feel it if they really concentrated on anything other than their nostrils, where it felt like something was tickling the inside of their nose. On their face, there was a light weight resting on their face, held in place by smaller rubber tape. It hadn't really any feeling to it, but if they had to label it with a name...plastic maybe? Plastic lines held by rubber tape was on their face, tickling their nose. It only made Frisk confused further.

And then there was the beeping. It was a constant, high pitched sound that eventually forced into the notice of the child. It kept a steady rhythm to it and was pretty loud and obnoxious. Frisk was positive that they never heard it before at any place that they've been before. Maybe once on the television, but that was a while ago. They were almost certain now that they were somewhere that they didn't know and immediately felt a dislike to the place.

If their eyes were so lead-heavy, they would've woken up fully and tried to identify where the hell they were.

But Frisk's eyes were heavy even when they were closed, so they decided to let their fatigue take their body once more. Then, they promised themselves, when they woke up, they would find out where they were. But until then, a yawn escaped Frisk's mouth, they would let their body sleep once more.

Their body had a nice tingle all over when they eventually woke. This time, their eyelids were lighter than before and allowed a small struggle to fully push them open. When they had, everything was bright and they quickly shut their eyes from the change of lighting. To allow them to get used to the light, they squinted for a few seconds before slowly allowing them to open a bit more.

Once they were adjusted fully, they were able to look around. It was pure white every where they looked. Sunlight appeared next to them on their right, pouring over their bed, warming their tired body in the most pleasant of ways. Frisk now understood why animals would always nap in the sunlight when it poured through the windows, it was so relaxful. The threads that their fingertips explored from earlier were the bed sheets, snowy white, and covering them tightly. The sheet colors matched their walls, curtains...everything that Frisk's eyes glanced over seemed to be white except for the door, which was a wooden door, and their outfit.

Was heaven really so white?

Their outfit wasn't white, along with the door. Their...outfit(?) seemed to be something like a pajama dress...thing. But it was too thin, easily the thinnest thing that they had ever worn. It felt like it was something for a trash can, honestly. It had that rubbery feeling and had some texture to it as well, but why, they couldn't figure it out. What was it? Whatever it was, it had teddy bears on it as a pattern. The bears were happy and reaching out for hugs on it, along with other activities. Frisk thought that it was kinda cute and examined the different bears doing different things, some reaching for hugs as said previously, others were playing with each other, doing something sporty, or cuddling with each other with hearts around them.

It made Frisk feel a bit lighter, honestly. Comforted.

But the white room wasn't really comforting, especially with them waking up alone in a strange place with things poking their skin and a computer next to them screeching that beeping noise. It was starting to get annoying with it constantly going. They didn't even know how long they were asleep or where their family was! What if something had happened? What if something bad happened and Frisk wasn't there to help?

Their throat was sore.

Frisk leaned back into the fluffy (white) pillows and sighed deeply, closing their eyes once more to give them a short break. With a light groan coming from their throat, they reflected on how they were tired still and wanted to know what was going on. Why were they still here? Or...here in the first place? Where were the monsters? Where were their parents? Did their parents even come? The last thing that they remembered was Pyrope hitting them and knocking their breath away, and then things got hazy.

Frisk shot their eyes open once more and thought about what just happened.

They had taken a deep breath.

Ecstatic, they did it again. Their lungs didn't even rattle with effort.

Breathing clearly was great, was easy, and felt so much nicer on their lungs, as if it were a natural thing to do!

Well.

Frisk took another, clear, breath and cracked a smile. That was amazing! That hadn't ever happened before! As far as Frisk could recall, they weren't able to take that good of a breath before. Usually it was adulterated by something in the air, damn you allergies, or something had rattled in their lungs to cause them to wheeze or...or something! But this, this was totally different!

Frisk let out a small laugh that didn't require much use of their throat and let themselves fall back into their pillows.

While they were focused on their new ability, the wooden door creaked open and in came somebody with a clipboard. "Hey, you're awake!" They greated with a soft smile. "How're you feeling?"

Frisk blinked at them and glanced to the window. They didn't know how they were feeling, really. Did the new lady mean physically or mentally? Physically, better than ever before! The body was finally reaching equilibrium, or at least getting there. Homeostasis felt fantastic, Frisk was discovery. But on the other hand...their mental stability was a bit off. Frisk wanted to know _where_ they were? They were about to ask the strange lady, dressed in deep blue...pajamas? They definitely looked like pajamas, at least...They were about to ask her where they were before the lady read their mind and gave them an explanation.

"You're in the children's hospital," they turned to them as they checked the beeping machine next to them and wrote something down on their chart. "I'm your day nurse. My name is Sarah," they turned to Frisk. "Can you tell me yours?"

Frisk stared.

"I just want to make sure you're able to talk." The lady laughed. "No need to give me that look, pumpkin."

After a second's worth of hesitation, they slowly cracked their mouth open. "F...Frisk." Their voice was cracked as well, making them want to cough a bit.

The nurse noticed and sat down in the chair next to their bed. "Frisk, I need a big favor from you. And you're the only one who can do it," Looking back, Frisk wasn't sure if it was because of the medication or if they honestly felt determined, but they listened to the lady with a face of a child was ready for the challenge. "If you need to cough, you need to do just that. Can you do that for me?"

Frisk nodded. "Good!" They reached over and playfully patted Frisk's head, trying not to give much attention to the discoloration of their cheek, where Pyrope had struck. "You're already such a great patient!"

That made Frisk puff out their chest with a bit of pride. The lady was nicer than Frisk would've thought.

Thinking of their throat once more, Frisk sat up a bit on their pillow and groaned a tiny bit. "Can...I.." They had to stop and give a small cough before looking at Sarah.

The nurse watched, reading the child's mind once more. "Need some water?"

The child nodded.

The nurse stood and walked out of the room. They were gone for a few seconds only before the returned with a paper cup, also decorated with colorful characters, of water. The nurse wearing the pajamas handed Frisk the cup and instructed them to drink it with small sips instead of big chugs. Frisk had giggled when the nurse had joked with them about chugging an invisible cup of water then laughed too, spilling the invisible water all over Frisk. Then they played with Frisk, pretending to clean it up and apologizing for being so clumsy, delicately patting the bed with a pretend towel where the water had spilled all over.

Frisk really liked this nurse.

They watched tv for a short bit, (Frisks room had a tv! All their own! They could even choose what show to watch!) before they had to go check on other kids on their floor. Frisk smiled. The kids needed a good nurse and so far, Sarah was the best one that they were ever going to get. After watching an hour or so of watching cartoons, Frisk had felt that familiar fatigue biting at their body. Frisk wasn't ready to go to sleep, they wanted to stay up longer to try and find where their friends were, but lost the battle with their eyes before long.

They didn't dream this time when they had fallen asleep, but they were sure that they felt somebody next to them in their bed and familiar voices talking all around. It had made Frisk feel a bit better, especially when somebody had held their hand for a really long time.

The next time that Frisk woke up, there was Sarah checking on their charts at the foot of their bed. Frisk smiled softly and picked up their arm to wave quietly at Sarah. Sarah looked up and waved back at them just as quietly. The sun wasn't covering the room and when a cursory glance at the window revealed a setting sky, Frisk looked back over at Sarah with a bit of a frown. "Do you have to leave?" They whispered.

"Yeah, my shift's almost over. But don't worry, my nursey friend is gonna take care of you during the night. Her name is Gabriella, but if you call her Gabby she'll tickle you for grins and giggles," Sarah winked at Frisk, casting a smile at them again.

Frisk moved their mouth a bit, trying to get moisture back in. Their mouth had made that "tap tap" sound trying to do so, awarding them another colorful cup of water. Frisk had asked how long they were asleep, and got an outstanding answer of two days!

The first day was normal, with all the medication they were on, it would be normal to be tired and sleep all day, especially with all that happened. The second was a carry over of the first day, along with the fact that Frisk was still on a few different types of medications. Tomorrow they should be awake for most of it, and they could probably go home after the fourth day.

Frisk wanted to go home now.

When they voiced this, Sarah sighed, sat down in the chair next to them and smiled. "You wanna know something? Your family came in here today during visiting hours, and were with you the entire time. They held your hand, watched cartoons with you, one had even fallen asleep next to you," Sarah playfully smiled at Frisk and gave them a small giggle. "It was pretty cute."

"My mom or Pyrope?" Frisk had asked, tilting their head to the side in a questioning gesture.

Sarah inhaled sharply. "Well, neither were here. I don't think you'll see them for a while," Sarah closed her eyes for a second or two and unclenched her fists. "But I'm talking about your family, your monster one." Frisk seemed to perk up at this and she continued. "The skeletons and the goat looking one," Sarah's grin got bigger as she continued on. "The yellow one and the fish lady. They were all in here. The smaller skeleton had crawled up in the bed with you and had fallen asleep." Sarah laughed at the memory. "I had to make him get off, it's against the rules to do that, but it was really cute."

Frisk had grinned along with her nurse.

"Oh! That reminds me," Sarah got up and jogged out of the room before returning with something behind her back. "I have a present for you from them!"

She held out her arm, which carried a stuffed fox toy. The fox itself was covered in a deep orange color, along with splashed of white and black in the appropriate areas. The toy was also dressed up with a bow and tie and had a smile sewn onto it's face, making it seem very fancy. Frisk felt like it needed a mustache to make it completely fancy, but decided that it would wait until later when they could get their hands on a marker. The tail was extra puffy, giving it a oval shape that made it seem all the more cuddly. All the lines, colors, and everything else was so fine and detailed that Frisk gasped audibly at it and reached out to take it upon seeing it.

Never given a toy like this before, Frisk hugged it close to their chest and inhaled it's scent. It had the faintest hints of cinnamon butterscotch pies to it, which prompted Frisk to hug it closer to their chest with tears pricking their eyes.

Sarah watched with a look of indescribably joy on their face. Her eyebrows were tilted, a small smile blooming, and she sighed peacefully. Sarah loved kids, and this was one of the better parts of her job. She loved giving the toys or presents to the kids that the parents left behind for them, it always made them feel so much better despite whatever illness brought them to her work. And this child was no exception to that.

Truth be told, their biological parents (or step dad in this case as well) weren't going to take care of them anymore. The bruise that decorated Frisk's face was proof enough of how the step father treated Frisk and the neglect to take care, or even _notice,_ of the poor child's asthma was the final straw for the Child Protective Service agent that was dealing with Frisk's case. Immediately, the goat lady had requested to adopt the child and it was in the successful process of going through. Despite the monster/human thing going on right now with the rest of the world, anything was better than the system and the agent was just glad that they were able to avoid it this time, especially with all the extra paperwork on it. Frisk wouldn't ever have to go through it as long as they were taken better care of. Honestly, Sarah thought that the child was going to have a much better life with their monster family that their human family.

As they said goodbye to the small child, still hugging the fancy fox, Sarah smiled to herself. Yes, the child was going to have a much better life.


	8. The One with Evil Plants and Names

_The night sky was littered with whisps of clouds flying overhead and bright stars shining above the heavens. The clouds gently flew along with the breeze that had caused the plants to dance and create a soft whispering noise. The droplets of dew that clung onto the plants had created small diamonds on each plant that shimmered with their dancing movements. The light of the moon filled the meadow with a soft white light, creating an atmosphere of peace and nothing else._

 _Frisk had enjoyed this meadow before, the first time they were here didn't last as long as they would've liked. If they were here once again, then it was most likely in a dream. This was a new level of dream though, seeing how Frisk was actually able to feel things around them. They were able to feel the damp soil underneath give slightly when Frisk shifted their body weight or moved around. The wind had gently lapped at their figure, even going through the hair that Frisk didn't have in the physical world. The scent of fresh dew and flowers were carried through the air around them. The aura of peace was strong in here, and to come from a world of neglect and now more action-thanks to the monsters, almost experiencing death, to be in this world of just peace...was a nice change of pace for the child at least._

 _Yet, something was amidst. Frisk had sensed it ever since they had entered the meadow. The last was so short that Frisk couldn't even really get a bearing of where they possibly were, or what was wrong. But now that they were able to have more time in this area, to be able to feel what was going on around them, it gave them a small sense of comfort. At the same time, fear due to whatever was hair raising, but this time, they were able to explore to their heart's content. And they would be able to find out what was so wrong._

 _And so they did._

 _Frisk was currently making their way along a beaten path in the direct middle of the flowers that had appeared as soon as Frisk needed it. They were walking around the field of flowers, trying to find where to walk when it had popped up, sending the plants jumping to get out of the way. The path was very long and it looked like it could continue for a long while. They couldn't even see what was at the end of it. And yet, despite the warning alarms going off in their head, they went down the path._

 _They lost track of how long they were walking down the beaten dirt road. All around them were flowers upon flowers, plants galore, they weren't even really sure if this place had anything except plants in it. As far as Frisk could see, the entire world was just made of flowers and the occasional tree, that not so surprisingly, had flowers on it. Yet, something was ahead, they could feel it in their soul. And something told them that it was the cause of what made the place feel dangerous._

 _They continued to creep down the path until something shifted behind them. There were no bugs, no animals, living there. The silence had reigned on forever in this place. So when something had actually made a sound that wasn't because of them, Frisk, perked up, swiftly turned around to find...nothing. A feeling of deja vu creeped over them, (had something stalked them before?!) their heart beginning to pick up pace a bit. Slowly, they scanned the field, seeing the path clearly, their footsteps barely visible on the dirt. Nothing else was there. And the only place to hide was in the plants that surrounded the entire area completely…_

 _Great._

 _With heavy hesitation, they turned back and began to walk again, albeit much slower, ears listening carefully for any sign of something behind them. Frisk had even slowed their breathing and tried to step lighter so they would be more adept in hearing what was going on around them. Though they weren't able to hear anything, they definitely sensed something was behind them. Frisk could feel eyes watching their back, watching their every movement as if they were being hunted.. It made Frisk sweat slightly from fear and pressure. And again, the deja vu from earlier appeared. How many times were they stalked? Hunted?_

 _This didn't make Frisk feel any comfort in the least._

 _Before they could figure out their feelings and the level of comfort they were experiencing, the sound of plants moving caused the child to jump, turn, and gasp respectively. The path that they had been walking on before was beginning to shift. Instead of the beaten down path that had split the plants like water, the path was beginning to blur at the end. Frisk squinted and scrutinized what was happening further down the path. It took a minute to see through the dark and the moving leaves, but the plants in the distance began to go back to their original position, destroying the path that they had made. Like the water that had been split by Moses was coming back to drown everybody. The sea of plants were quickly catching up to where Frisk was, gaining on their location._

 _With wide eyes and heart racing, they turned on the sole of their feet and began sprinting, not wasting anytime. They hadn't ever been able to run very fast, especially with the untreated asthma, but in this world Frisk didn't have any trouble. Especially with adrenaline and terror taking over their body. Their chest didn't feel any pain, but their legs were beginning to burn with each step they took. Their skin on their legs felt like it was tightening around their muscles, which had further stung them._

 _The sound of leaves, stems, flowers, everything that made a plant hit each other with a scary amount of force filled Frisk's ears. It sounded just like it read, like a mixture of water and snapping rope. The wind began to howl around them, sending loose leaves and dirt flying all around them. It had made it so much harder to see what was going on and where they were going, but Frisk couldn't stop. They didn't need to find out what would happen if they did stop and end up in the storm of plants behind them._

 _Frisk continued to sprint, each step barely letting their foot touch the ground fully before it was picked up once more and shoved in front of the other. Tears began to sting their face, sweat dripping down onto their forehead like nothing else. They hadn't been this exhausted from running since...ever really, and the fear wouldn't let them stop to reflect on it, it just screamed at them to keep running. For a few seconds, they did just that and kept moving, never stopping. That was, until they felt the plants closing together just behind them. Their ankles were tickled by the feeling of the leaves moving back to where they belonged. The sound and the wind were getting stronger the longer that they were moving, if the plants were so close to them, how much longer did they have to live?_

 _The plants were beginning to close around them like a nut in a shell. If they were able to look back, they would've seen that the path was completely gone behind them and now was starting to move ahead of them. It became a race of who would finish first, who would escape to the end of the meadow before the other. Frisk had nowhere else to go once the path was gone. And the person behind them? What if they were the figure that was there the last time? Were they friendly or….? Frisk didn't want to think about the other option. Especially if they were still in the meadow with them._

 _Before they were ready, before they knew it, the path had closed all around them. Frisk had tried to spread the plants apart and keep running, but the path was gone. There were no indications that it had ever once been a path before. They kept trying, getting on their knees and digging around at the base of the stems of all the plants, looking for any clue whatsoever for a direction to go towards. Their fingers got small cuts from some thorns and rocks, but the pain was ignored and overseen due to the adrenaline rushing through their veins._

 _When they finally accepted that there was no way to find the path once more, they leaned back and sat down in the dirt. Frustration quickly filled their chest and Frisk felt like screaming until their voice was hoarse and their throat raw. They scrunched up their eyes and tried their best not to do just that, it would lead the figure straight to them. So, instead, they looked up to see the plants towering over them, only barely able to see the moon at all anymore. It filled Frisk with fear now instead. Looks like even the sky was going to abandon them. With nothing else to do, that sat and waited._

 _Nothing happened._

 _For a while, that is. Eventually, a sound broke out across the meadow, giving Frisk a slight jump as they scrambled to their feet and listened carefully. Silence filled the meadow for just a second before the sound started again, as if the figure had heard their sounds as well. Their breath came out in gasps, a small cloud forming each time a breath was given out. Frisk trembled, knees visibly shaking together. The figure would be able to find them if they were like this! When the noises became louder, Frisk kneeled down in the plants and put a hand over their mouth to try and keep them hidden._

 _The sound still came closer yet, the person must've been magic or something to be able to find their way through this field. Actually, that had made sense. If the person was magic then they would be able to move the path like that. The sounds continued through, sounding like rustles of the ground beneath them and the rustling of fabric. Footsteps? The rustling came closer and closer to Frisk's location, sending chills down their spine. They weren't ready to die, they really weren't. Frisk continued to try and stay still in the hopes of not being discovered, maybe even being able to escape to freedom. Their body shook with the effort and from the fear that raced in their body continously. Eventually, they saw a glimpse of the sound's owner and narrowed their eyes to see more clearly._

 _The figure had a messy bob haircut, hair frizzy. They weren't very tall either, like Frisk had expected them to be. They seemed to be pretty short, actually. Their hairstyle was pretty short as well. Their shirt sagged with it being too big on them. It was too dark to see the exact pattern of it, but by the way that the sleeves hung off their arms like that, it must've been a jacket or a sweater. Frisk couldn't see the pants that they were wearing, or the shoes, but it looked like the style that Frisk normally-_

 _Frisk brought down their hand in surprise and audibly gasped._

 _It was them! Like...a clone version of Frisk!_

 _Their hair, their favorite striped sweater, everything. The other Frisk moved through the field with ease, seeming to cast a cursory glance over all the plants, as if they were looking for something that would be found with ease, no effort required. As if they were looking for something...that looked exactly like themselves._

 _If Frisk wasn't in the habit of staying quiet (even when they needed to speak), they were sure that clone-Frisk would've found them by now. Instead, a quiet gasp was all that was needed. The clone didn't seem to hear it, and continued their search. They eventually ended up right where Frisk was, only feet away from discovering them. Frisk briefly wondered if their heartbeat would give them away by how loudly it was pounding in their chest, before praying that it didn't. They were able to hold their breath, not speaking, or do anything else. But holding your heartbeat? Sorry, but no. Frisk couldn't do that until they died._

 _And if Clone-Frisk found them, then they just might be able to pull of that trick soon._

 _They continued to stand there. Frisk continued to kneel and hold their breath, only letting out small breaths and taking even smaller ones in when they felt like their lungs were going to burst at any moment. Frisk now understood how animals felt when predators were chasing them. Their body was shaking to the core, breathing was labored. They felt like they weren't ever going to be warm again. The impersonator stood there, silently scanning the field for the original._

 _Clone-Frisk eventually sat down, back to Frisk, and looked up at the stars._

 _Nothing was said, Frisk was too busy trying not to be found to really form a sentence. The other one, apparently, had no problem with speaking and sighed peacefully before gesturing up at the stars._

 _"They're pretty here, aren't they?"_

 _Frisk didn't know if they were talking to themselves or Frisk, but technically it would be to themselves either way. Disregarding that confusing thought, Frisk continued to listen to the clone speak. The clone must've not like speaking either because of how soft their voice was. It was like hearing bells talking instead of a human. It was almost relaxing to hear that soft voice. Was that what they sounded like?_

 _"In the Underground, we didn't get to see the stars. I almost forgot what they looked like. What the nighttime smelled like." They turned to Frisk's general direction. "You're lucky you get to be the one who sees it all the time." The smiled and laid down, watching the sky still. "I know that you're here with me." It sent shivers up their spine. "But I'm not going to harm you. I just have a message for you."_

 _It was a tense moment where nothing happened. Like the cold war, it was threatening, but no actions were taken. Even the wind stopped for a second. It sent Frisk to the edge of sanity, they wanted nothing more than to wake up and see the light again. To get out of the field and run until they were back home, with Toriel and her wonderful pies. With their friends to eat it with. Nothing else could've been better than that._

 _Clone-Frisk had gotten up, turned and made direct eye contact with them. They didn't move, but didn't have to either. It paralyzed the original Frisk to the spot, making them gasp with fear, but at the same time, they weren't able to move. Their eyes stayed connected for a few moments. Nothing happened between the two, but it was such a rush that Frisk wanted nothing more than to just scream._

 _Clone Frisk sighed deeply and seemed to give a small smile. "You're the last one of us," they spoke softly. "It's our last chance." They turned and began walking away. Frisk stayed where they were on the ground, heart beating._

 _Was that it?_

 _The wind blew around them, sending a few leaves in their sight before they would hear the message._

 _"Beware the one with no humanity."_

Frisk blinked themselves awake, heart still hammering in their chest. For a few minutes, all that they did was watch the ceiling with unease filling them. The dream was a bit different this time and any other. It was...odd to say the least. Many questions arose in Frisk's mind as they aimlessly watched the specks in the ceiling. Why were they telling themselves to beware of whoever? That didn't make sense.

 _Beware the one with no humanity._

Did that mean to beware of the monsters? Did they even have humanity?

Frisk groaned and rolled over on their side, tubes and needles poking their skin. They hugged Mr. Fancy Fox close to their chest. Why couldn't they ever have normal dreams about school and them forgetting their pants or something?

It was later in the day when visiting hours were taking place.

Sarah had told the child that they lasted for two hours every day, lasting from two to four in the afternoon. It was only about ten o'clock when Frisk woke up, giving them about four hours to waste before they were able to see their monster friends. And after everything that happened, Frisk needed to see something familiar. They needed to know what happened, what was happening now, and what was going to happen to Frisk. They knew that the adoption papers were going through, but did they have to see their parents ever again?

They really hoped not.

To kill the time, Frisk did everything that needed to be done by the time they arrived. There wasn't much one could do in bedrest, but Frisk managed it. They ate their breakfast, consisting of oatmeal, raspberries, and bananas. It had even come served with a proud glass of milk and a bendy straw that Frisk may or may not have used to blow bubbles with. After that wonderful meal, they watched a few cartoons that were on the tv. Mr. Fancy Fox was quickly caught up on the wonderful world that was Steven Universe, We Bare Bears, and even a few episodes of Spongebob before he complained that he was tired. So they both took a short nap.

Sarah had woken them up to give Frisk their medicine and help them go to the bathroom. It was really nice to be able to walk around for once, it had been a few days since they weren't laying on something and their legs were starting to get bed sores. They had asked Sarah if they were allowed to walk around anywhere else, and Sarah told them that unfortunately, no. They weren't suppose to be moving around too much because they had a very harsh asthma attack and the hospital didn't want their chest to get too agitated again.

Speaking of, Frisk tilted their head in a question and pointed to their lungs.

"What about your lungs?" Sarah asked as they slowly walked back to Frisk's room to give them some more time walking. Frisk held up their fist with their pinky and thumb sticking out and moved it away from their chest. Sarah knew some sign language from their deaf patients and knew now what Frisk was asking. "Why you had the asthma attack?"

Sarah sighed deeply. "Many reasons. We had to get the police involved, along with CPS, and your monster friends drew attention to the matter as well. It was a bit of a mess to try and get everything sorted out, but we eventually did." They turned down a hall. "See, you've probably had asthma for a while now. And if it goes untreated for an extended period of time, things can get a lot worse. Especially under stress or if your lungs are irritated by outside things, like pollen, dust," Sarah turned to Frisk with a knowing look. "The cold, all of those can factor in. And you, poor kiddo, had the luck of getting all of it at once. You probably looked up some exercises for your breathing?"

Frisk nodded.

"Well, that isn't always the healthiest option to go. But you managed to do it for a while." Sarah kneeled down and put her hands on Frisk's shoulders. "Listen, Frisk. When you were under all that stress, your lungs were already upset because of the cold that you walked through the night before. And when that...man," Sarah refrained herself from cursing outright in front of a child, "hit you, it knocked your breath away from the shock and pain." She was watching for Frisk's reaction.

"You couldn't get your breath back. And all those factors had lead to a massive asthma attack. Do you understand why that happened now?"

Frisk nodded.

"Okay. Do you have any more questions about anything?" Sarah gave them a half smile. Frisk thought about it before nodding. "And that would be?"

"What happened to Pyrope?" Frisk whispered, and pointed to the bruise that was still on their cheek.

Sarah took a deep breath before exhaling carefully. "I only know this because I'm your nurse and had to be caught up on everything in case something happened. But," Sarah looked around. Truthfully, she didn't know if she should tell the kid this, but fuck it, they wanted to know so they shall. "He got in a lot of trouble. A lot of his supporters left him after word of him neglecting you and putting you in the hospital. He was arrested, but of course, he had the money for bail and had the best lawyer. So," Sarah gave a very tight smile. "He walked free."

Frisk's eyes dropped to the ground. They didn't really know what to think of that. They had been hurt by him, sure, but they didn't really want him to be locked up...and at the same time, they didn't want him free. They just wanted him to be out of their life for good.

"You won't have to go back to him. Actually, I think that he has a restraining order on him right now," Sarah chuckled and ran a hand over their head, comforting them. "But it's almost two! So we can go see your friends." Sarah smiled genuinely and guided Frisk back to their room.

Frisk appreciated the fact that Sarah didn't say monster friends. Just friends. She really was a good nurse. One of the best in every way possible.

Frisk hadn't realized how much they missed their friends until they were back under all the tubes and needles, medication and pills, just plain everything, stuck to their bed. They were watching a rerun of a cartoon with their trusty fox when the knock on the door sounded. Frisk excitedly turned off their tv and turned to the door with a smile on their face.

When it was Sarah who came in, their face showed a hint of disappointment. "Oh, come on, now, don't give me that." Sarah stuck out their tongue playfully. "I had to bring medicine for you." They set down a tray of colorful pills and a white tube looking thing. "And they say that laughter is the best medicine you can have," she turned back around and stepped outside the door, motioning somebody forward.

Frisk leaned up a bit in their bed to look and try to see who she was getting. When Frisk heard the familiar "NYEH HEH HEH" in the hallway, a true smile broke out across their face and they almost laughed themselves. Sarah winked at Frisk and left the room, letting their guest enter freely.

The one to enter was, of course, Papyrus. He was wearing his normal clothes, scarf and all. Just seeing it made Frisk's smile a bit brighter. They reached their arms outward in a silent request for a hug and Papyrus obliged. He hugged the child very closely to his chest and tried to ignore the tubes and wires hooked up to his friend. It hurt him much more than it could've ever possible hurt Frisk.

Frisk eventually let go of him and looked towards the door, expecting more monsters to come in. "OH, NO, IT'S JUST ME FOR NOW." Frisk turned to them in question with a somewhat disappointed gleam in their eye. "I KNOW, YOUR TINY FORM NEEDS ALL THE LAUGHTER AND LOVE IT CAN GET RIGHT NOW, BUT I'M AFRAID THAT ONLY THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS ABLE TO COME TODAY."

He sat down next to the bed in the wheely chair stationed next to it and placed his head in his bony arms. "TORIEL AND SANS HAD TO GO TO THE COURTHOUSE TO MEET WITH YOUR PARENTAL UNITS AND GET THEIR SIGNATURES SIGNED OFF ON THE ADOPTION PAPERS. WHICH REMINDS ME!" He turned and pulled out a backpack. He scrambled for something inside and pulled it out. "HERE WE GO!" He turned back to Frisk with a smile on his face. It looked very natural for him to smile like that. He handed them a flaccid balloon.

Frisk looked up, confused at that. It was just a normal, plastic, blue balloon. He chuckled at that, the laugh vibrating deep in his chest; it was rather comforting to Frisk. "IT'S A CELEBRATION BALLOON! I HAVE A COLORFUL ASSORTMENT IN MY BAG WITH A BUNCH OF COLORS. I WOULD HAVE FILLED THEM UP MYSELF, BUT I HAVE NO LIPS." He handed Frisk more balloons. "WE ARE CELEBRATING TWO THINGS! THE FIRST, IS THAT YOU ARE OKAY, HUMAN. THE SECOND IS THAT TORIEL IS ADOPTING YOU!" His arms shot up into the air and he stood abruptly, sending the wheely chair spinning backwards.

Frisk looked at the colorful assortment of balloons and smiled. This was pretty great. It would be an exercise for their lungs to fill all of these up, but maybe they could convince Sarah to help fill a few as well. Speaking of, Frisk thought and looked at the medicine, remembering what Sarah had told them earlier.

"Papyrus?" The whispered, turning to face them.

"HM?" He seemed to be super excited about the balloons and was stretching out the neck of one so it'd be easier to tie once it was full of air. Frisk turned their attention to Mr. Fancy Fox, who was currently feeling empathy for the eleven year old.

"You said my dad was coming? Did you mean Pyrope?" The stretching sound slowed to a stop. Frisk felt a pang in their chest. They never met their true dad and hoped that they meant Pyrope. They didn't know how they would've felt otherwise. "My nurse said that he got a retraction ordered. What's that?"

Papyrus didn't say anything for a while. Frisk was about to reiterate their question when Papyrus shook his head and sighed. "YOU MEAN A RESTRAINING ORDER." He looked at Frisk sadly. Frisk looked back with a hurt expression. Even with his comfort, it still felt like somebody was stepping on their heart. "MY FRIEND, HE HAD HURT YOU VERY, VERY BADLY. WE WERE ALL VERY WORRIED FOR YOU, HUMAN, EVEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS. AND IT TAKES A LOT TO EVEN GET HIM UPSET," he attempted a small smile. "AND WE FIXED THE PROBLEM, JUST LIKE I PROMISED YOU. YOU'RE GOING TO LIVE WITH TORIEL NOW AND YOU WON'T EVER SEE HIM AGAIN."

Truth be told, Papyrus didn't really know what he was saying. He was just trying to comfort his friend after the horrible ideal they had to be going through. When Frisk had collapsed and Alphys reported that they weren't breathing, it was a world-shattering event to Papyrus. His friend looked so...cold. They weren't moving, their heart wasn't even beating for a while, and they looked like they weren't ever going to move again. The mother of Frisk had screamed, and the step father had taken his wife and raced down to their car, leaving Frisk alone. The monsters were the ones who took Frisk to the hospital, they were the ones who had to be walked through what all was going on. The cops scared Papyrus, still do, but seemed to be, for once, on their side of the situation.

It had scared the skeleton more that Frisk was left alone for so long in the hospital. They weren't allowed to go with them when the healers had taken Frisk back into doors that wouldn't open for non-patients. If Sans wasn't there, he didn't know what he would've done. Sans comforted his brother, and Papyrus tried to comfort Sans, but he didn't even know if Sans was as distraught as he was. It was a very confusing, and rather horrifying, night for the monster group. They had almost lost a member...again. And it scared them all to death.

But!

Once everything was figured out, the step father and mother were given a hefty fine to pay for everything that they had done. The stepfather had taken his lawyer and gotten himself and his wife out of jail and they were happy now. Especially that they didn't have to deal with Frisk any longer, made them very, very happy. Except for the fact that their child was now running amuck with monsters, but it didn't apply for them to care anymore.

It made his blood boil. But for Frisk, he would focus on cheering them up instead of making his teeth grind.

Yesterday when they had finally been able to visit, Frisk was asleep through all of it. Sans, being the shortest in the group after Frisk, had been able to cuddle with their tiny friend for the majority of it before Sarah came in and told him that while it was cute, he had to get off. But the sight of Frisk being in so many tubes, wires, that annoying beeping machine, it made Papyrus even more concerned for Frisk. He only wanted the best for his friends and so far it was seeming like it was beginning to be a challenge. Nothing that the Great Papyrus couldn't handle of course, but-

"What's everybody doing?" Frisk asked, drawing his attention back to the tiny child.

"OH! WELL, SANS AND TORIEL ARE TALKING TO THE HUMANS IN CHARGE OF RELEASING YOU TO US. LET'S SEE...ALPHYS AND UNDYNE ARE WORKING TODAY, I THINK. AND ASGORE IS BUSY WITH POLITICAL MATTERS TODAY." He smiled at Frisk. "AND I'M HERE WITH YOU!"

Frisk smiled and nodded. "I like the last part the best."

Papyrus's smile grew and his heart fluttered. Even if they had died before and caused them all great pain, this child brought a new light in his life and he was so glad that they were back.

The time for visitation was almost over and Frisk was aware of it. Sarah was very happy to help fill balloons with them and Papyrus was the one who tied everything together while the tv displayed some movie that nobody really paid any attention to. The room was now littered with colorful balloons and Frisk couldn't have felt happier. Papyrus had done his job of cheering them up quite well, they didn't even feel anything about not meeting their dad today. After all, if they lived their entire life up to this moment without meeting him, and turned out this good, then another day without him was just fine.

That was, until Sans and Toriel showed up. They had just gotten back from the courthouse, and the lawyers had just discussed with the father, Frisk's actual biological father, the events that occurred recently with one of his children and had asked if they wanted to have Frisk under his case. At that point, Frisk was on the edge of their bed, their heart monitor beeping faster.

Sans and Toriel shared a look.

"Frisk," Toriel began carefully. "When they had asked what your father wanted," she took a deep breath and flexed out her clenched hands. "He said that he didn't want you."

Frisk flinched slightly and looked down. That wasn't what they were expecting. That wasn't what they were expecting at all.

The monsters tried to cheer Frisk up with the little time they had left, but they were only barely starting to when Sarah came in and booted them out. They all gave her pleads to let them stay a bit longer, but eventually they did have to leave. Frisk had wanted to be alone anyway to think about what all was happening lately. Their father said no to taking care of them, that they didn't even want them in their life. Their mother had married a man with no respect for life whatsoever, and now had chosen him over their own child.

Flashbacks to when their mother was explaining where their father appeared in their mind. Frisk had asked when they were very young where their father was, and their mother almost cried. She had sat down with Frisk and explained that when mommy was young, she had Frisk. Words echoed through, telling them that their father hadn't wanted them when their mother was still pregnant. When they were a bit older, their mother had explained what abortion was and how hard it was of a choice to keep Frisk rather than going under the blade. Frisk had felt special then, feeling like their mother really and truly wanted them, but now it just seemed like a slap in their face.

Now neither parent wanted their child. Frisk thought briefly for a second that nobody wanted them, but just as quickly shut that thought down.

Frisk rubbed at their eyes with the back of their hand, ignoring the pull some of the tubes gave. Wait, no. That wasn't right. That was far from being true. Despite being unwanted by their parents, despite being bullied, despite being neglected, despite everything that went wrong in their life, Frisk had the sudden realization of something that made them grin through the tears. All they had to do was look around at the colorful balloons that filled the room. Maybe they weren't wanted by the humans, but the monsters seemed to generally care for Frisk. They wanted them to be apart of their family now and Frisk was so happy about that.

They finally had a family now. They were wanted by somebody! It was the first day in a long, long time that they were wanted by somebody and actually felt that way. It was probably the best gift that they were ever going to get and they wouldn't change a thing about it. The only thing now was the test the name to make sure that it fit just right.

With a cracking voice from crying, Frisk took a deep breath and focused on their toy. "Hi, Mr. Fancy Fox," they took another breath and wiped more liquids off their face. "I have a new name now." He seemed eager to listen. "F...Frisk Dreemurr."

The name sounded right, and Frisk, still crying, made Mr. Fancy Fox bob his head in agreement. "That's my name now, Mr. Fancy," Frisk smiled. "That's my name."

They shook hands.


	9. The One with the Zoo

"Put this in your mouth and push this down," Sarah explained gently as her hands guided Frisk's over the white inhaler that they were receiving. The soft hands hand been guiding Frisk's for a while now, moving them when they were in the wrong position, or pressing down a finger to show how much pressure was needed to be used. "Only push it once though, okay?" A finger tapped along something to show where the nurse was talking about.

Frisk nodded. That was indeed okay.

Sarah smiled and ruffled Frisk's head fuzz that was soon to be hair. "You're such a good patient. What will I do once you leave?" Sarah laughed a bit in her voice at that. "I'd say come visit me again, but I don't want you to have to be hospitalized again for a long, long time, ya hear?" Sarah joked, as if the child could control if they needed to be.

Since Frisk had been administered into the hospital, the investigations began on Frisk's behalf. This meaning that police, along with other agencies, had done research on why Frisk hadn't been treated for asthma before. They had been just looking into it, actually, but the hospitalization had brought upon a lot more interest in the child. A lot of interesting reports came in, actually, that made everything much more intriguing for the agents on the case. Like when Frisk was gone down in the Underground for such a long time and the parents didn't notify anybody. Their child was missing for an extended period of time, no reports, no claims, nothing. They had also discovered that for years now, Frisk had went unseen by any doctor or health related professional. This emergency had been the first for years now.

Needless to say, the police were suspecting heavy neglect by the time that they had even gotten to the fact that when the parents were question the parents, they didn't fully know what gender Frisk was. When they were administered into the hospital, of course the doctors and nurses knew their true gender, but respected Frisk's request of being gender-neutral and remained it at that. Upon further questioning, the step father, one of a major political position, didn't even truly know Frisk's age. The mother had known, but only because of the stretch marks and how long it took to get rid of them.

Immediately, the two were charged with neglect (and abuse on the step father's part) but were, to many's frustration, discharged once their powerful lawyers got involved. They signed the documents to release Frisk into the custody of Toriel, much to the mother's chagrin. However, the press had gotten ahold of the story and were having a field day with it. Pyrope had been getting heavy flames and was having to face the people. Having lost most of his support, the man was beginning to get very angry and it showed on every interview or press conference he had. In fact, majority of anything he did was try to cover up the events over the course of previous years.

Frisk thought it was kinda funny how mad he looked at time. His entire head would do bright red and even on television they were able to see veins throb in his face.

Since the parents were no longer able to take care of the child (or able to get in contact, really), Toriel has been prepping Frisk's new room at her house. They were getting an entire new closet of clothes, a twin sized bed with bright colored covers, matching curtains, a nice rug that filled a good chunk of the floor, even some toys! The two had picked out everything on Amazon while Frisk was in there. Toriel figured that it was a good idea to get some use of sitting around, getting rest, so she left a computer for them to use. And Frisk was content with everything that they had bought so far. They felt a bit bad about spending a lot of Toriel's hard earned money, but was reassured that there was enough to go around. (Monsters used GOLD to buy things! Holy crap!) Seeing as Frisk didn't have many belongings that they wanted, they were able to leave freely once they were discharged from the hospital.

Thankfully, Frisk was also getting much better both mentally and physically. The hospital had offered some art therapy for the child one afternoon for an hour. Frisk hadn't ever heard of the form of therapy, but found it very relaxing. Instead of a therapist and a couch, there was an artist who handed Frisk a mold of clay and told them to create whatever they wanted and Frisk was able to make a mediocre clay bowl with a few beads and jewels on it. They decided to give it to Sarah when they had gotten it back, and was now proudly sitting on the nurses' station, holding paper clips among other office supplies.

And pretty soon they would be able to do many things that they weren't before, like running or any other physical activity, thanks to their shiny new inhaler. Their lungs were already feeling a lot better and Frisk was now able to inhale much deeper than before, their chest expanding much further than they could remember ever being able to do. The first time that they had done it, they heard some popping coming from their back, making them laugh. Frisk was really just glad that they were going to have a better life. In fact, they were astonished at the last couple of days. It had kept them up the night before, thinking of everything that happened to them within the last two weeks.

Their entire life had completely changed. They weren't ever going to see Pyrope again, unless they turned on the news channels, that is. When Frisk had found out what happened to him and LOHAM, losing so much of their funding and support, the human couldn't resist a smile.

Frisk and the nurse began a new conversation, in which Frisk said a few words in. Halfway through it, however, a knock at the door caught their attention. Standing in the doorway was Frisk's new mother, Toriel. She had definitely seen better days before, this was clear judging by the new wrinkles on her face. (Could goats even get wrinkles?) But she seemed a lot more relieved than she did a few days ago.

"How's everything going?" Toriel asked politely, stepping into the room.

"Great! Just finishing up with teaching the munchkin how to work their inhaler." Sarah beamed and handed the child their new health instrument.

"That's good new to hear," Toriel sighed, shoulders seeming to slump slightly with relief. "Will they be able to come home today?"

"That depends on how they're feeling." Sarah turned to Frisk and nodded in a prompting sort of way, eyebrows lifting. When Frisk nodded with determination in their eyes, Sarah laughed and told Toriel that they should be fine to leave in that case. They had to talk to the new parent about what was suppose to happen within the next few days, signs of anything harmful happening, the usual information after any hospital trip.

As the two adults stepped into the hallway to go over everything and sign the release forms, a new figure came into the room, one that Frisk hadn't expected to see. In fact, they had only seen twice before this event.

"H-hey, Frisk," Alphys waved to the child, almost shy at the sight of the child. Frisk waved back with a grin spreading onto their face. "I'm glad that you're d-doing better now. We were, uh, worried, for a while there."

Frisk nodded vigorously and raised their eyebrows to indicate that they were too.

"W-well, actually, I have a question for you." Alphys sat down in the rolly chair beside the bed and fidgeted with her hands. "We had, uh, wanted to do something with you once, y'know, got out of the hos-uh, h-here," they stuttered, as if afraid that mentioning the hospital would put Frisk down. "Like, the group, ya know?" Alphys piped a bit up, but then looked down and shifted their eyes around nervously. "D-do you think you'd want to…?"

Frisk blinked at Alphys, trying to see if they were kidding, and, upon seeing that they weren't, they nodded quickly and laughed slightly with excitement. That perked the yellow lizard scientist up right away and they seemed to be sharing Frisk's excited mood. "R-really? That's great!" They pulled out their phone and began texting the group of monsters what Frisk's answer had been. Halfway through texting rapidly, Alphys blinked and looked up at Frisk. "What, uh, did you w-want to do, e-exactly?"

Frisk thought about did they want to do?

Obviously, they needed to move around. Only getting up to go to the bathroom, and one art therapy session, had really done a number on them and they were ready to kill just to move around. They were fairly sure that their legs were bruised from simply sitting around. So it had to be something with movement. That ruled out most places indoors, which was fine by Frisk as well. They hadn't stepped foot outside in four days now, it was time to feel that sun again. (The human decided it was best now to dwell on how the monsters had spent all those years without seeing the sun.)

A longing glance outside the window by Frisk's bed had revealed to them that the weather outside the flexiglass was seemingly fair. It wasn't too sunny, with big puffs of cotton dragging along with the bright blue sky. Frisk watched with envy as birds flew around and people stumbled through the streets. It was a pretty good day, even the birds were happily chattering with each other. The window hadn't really felt all that hot, so Frisk knew that it seemed like a good day outside all together. But Frisk wasn't a cloud reader, nor a meteorologist and couldn't tell what the weather itself was trying to tell them to do.

Frisk was alone on this one.

With a deep breath, Frisk glanced back to Alphys, who was patiently waiting on their answer, phone awaiting in her hands. In the hallway, the child could hear their new mother talking with their favorite nurse. Frisk wondered briefly what the goat lady would do if they were in their position and immediately came up with the would do something that would help them relax, but still get some movement in at the same time. Moving at relaxing?

Well, Frisk questioned themselves. What do I like to do more than anything else outside?

The answer came easily enough; they loved to get down and dirty and explore. (Which, unbeknownst to them, was how they had found the hole on the legendary mountain all that time ago.) But, at the same time, they knew without a doubt that Toriel would ever let them get dirty, especially with just leaving the hospital. It had to be something that didn't require a lot of danger, but required some exploration.

Frisk shifted their weight in their bed, getting more comfortable before answering in a cracked voice. "The zoo?"

Alphys beamed brightly at that answer, and went away to text the others. After Frisk saw the send button being hit, they knew that their answer was locked in place. And they didn't feel regret or anxious at all about the decision. The child turned back to the window and watched the clouds lazily fly by high up above and they knew that today was going to be a good one.

Once everything was signed, Sarah bid farewell, and Frisk was changed into their new clothes that Toriel had bought for them (they had superheroes on it!), the three of them were off to the zoo! Alphys had reported to the other two after texting for a solid ten minutes that everybody else was on their way and would meet them at the entrance gate. Frisk fidgeted in their seat, hardly believing what all was going on. They couldn't wait to get there, it was going to be so much fun to be able to explore all the areas in the zoo with their friends! And even better, it was to celebrate never having to go back to being alone! Frisk was ecstatic, more so than ever before, but they didn't let themselves fully believe it, just in case they were dreaming.

Dreams didn't always last, you see.

But as the car pulled up into the half full parking lot, Frisk began to feel more happiness rush into their system like nothing else before. They were jumping slightly on their feet and impatiently waited for the other two to get out of the car. Their eyes took in everything in their surroundings. Lots of trees stood guard around the cars, making sure that they provided plenty of shade for the cars to cool off in during the summer, and a lot of climbing material for the kids when schools had picnics. Birds were flying from tree to tree, screeching with content. The trees didn't have any leaves on them at the moment, seeing how it was winter, but Frisk had seen pictures when the school printed out permission slips for all the kids and did it look great! Secretly, Frisk wished that they could've seen it in the fall. The multi color leaves would've made great piles.

Rocks had also decorated the parking lot, some areas supporting massive boulders in place of walls, others having walls with rocks sprouting out of them. Beside the walls were snowed over mulch, some broken twigs sprinkled over the ground. It had given a very cozy feeling on the inside when they studied it, but not enough to vanquish the excitement that was for the trip inside.

Speaking of, their eyes sprung over to the entrance gate, where two skeletons and a fish warrior were standing guard, talking to each other. The smaller skeleton was leaning up against the wall with his hands in his pockets and had his eyes closed (could they close their eyes too?! Frisk marked that under "Weird Skeleton Qualities that I've Yet to Figure Out, a Novel by Frisk Dreemurr") with a sleepy expression on. The taller one was swinging his arms around the place and screeching about something that the child couldn't make out. The blue fish lady was screeching back about it, just as vocal and upfront about it as well.

As soon as Toriel had hit the lock key on their key ring that made the car go beep, Frisk was off. They were so ready for this that they had forgotten all about "taking it easy." It was the first time in years that Frisk had wanted to run at all, they wanted to be able to breathe like the normal kids, they wanted to do everything! Plus with their trusty inhaler, now stored in their coat pocket, they felt invincible. The child ignored Toriel's call to slow down and kept running. They ran like they did in their dream with the plants chasing after them.

Tap tap tap tap!

Frisk didn't let their feet hit the ground before picking them back up and swinging them in front. Their arms followed the movement and were pumped in front of the small chest with eager. Their vision was shaky, being unused to both running and being bounded around whenever their feet pushed back up. They weren't used to this type of exercise at all, they were used to more walking for hours on end at a comfortable pace.

Which was probably why Frisk didn't notice the curb that suddenly sprang up in front of them. Once second they were running towards the monsters, who were watching with amusement in their blurry faces, the next the world was swirled in colors. Frisk didn't have time to do much before the dull concrete color filled their eyes entirely. In fact, the only thing that Frisk had the time to do was close their eyes and hope that the fall didn't hurt too much.

But instead of feeling the harsh concrete hit their body, they felt the air swirl around them in a different movement and bony hands clutching their side tightly.

Frisk opened their eyes to see Papyrus using the momentum to swing them around his body. He seemed to be happier than the last time they saw them and his vocal squeal proved this. "OH, TINY HUMAN! I AM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU OUT OF THE MEDICAL UNIT!" He brought them close to his chest as he gave a tight squeeze that caused Frisk to giggle with joy. He always seemed to be able to put a smile on their face, no matter what. "BUT YOU MUST BE CAREFUL! YOU ARE LUCKY THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS ON THE ALERT, OTHERWISE YOU MIGHT'VE HAD TO GONE BACK TO THE UNIT AND WE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO SEE THE ANIMALS."

"Yeah! What boneheaded stunt was that?" Undyne marched up to them and gave them a soft noogie.

"I dunno," Sans pipped up. "I think that it was pretty skullful running there. A plus job, kiddo."

"Wha-oh my god, seriously?" Undyne turned with a cast of fake anger on their face. "It wasn't a pun!"

"I thought it was pretty punny."

"SANS!"

Toriel and Alphys had jogged up by now and were quick to check over her surrogate child in Papyrus's arms. Seeing no harm had been done, thanks to the tall skeleton, Toriel briefly scolded them on their reckless behavior, especially with being out of the hospital for less than an hour, but stopped with the monsters promising to watch the child. Frisk also had to promise not to run for the rest of the day, despite them being so excited that their breathing was in much better condition than before, even after the short run.

As they were walking into the zoo(finally!), Papyrus had readjusted his hold on the child, briefly bouncing them up in his arms, to get a better hold on them. He smiled as brightly as he could at them, and in return Frisk made a goofy face, which he laughed loudly with his "NYEH HEH HEH" echoing around them, causing some people to look. Frisk didn't care with the looks, and were simply happy enough to be held, even if they were a bit too old for it. But, taking into consideration that they barely looked like they were eight, they figured it would be okay.

The admissions man that was working on shift hadn't any idea on what to do and it was very obvious. His eyes widened and he had to clear his throat several times when he was talking. Toriel and the others didn't give him much grief about it (mostly because those who wouldn't said something were suddenly pointed in the direction of something shiny), which helped him calm down a bit. And while he had to call his manager to make sure it was okay to even admit the monsters tickets, he didn't charge them any extra fees or some bullshit like that. He had been one of the good ones, and thanked them for coming today. Toriel and the other ones who were present thanked him and wished a good day before moving on. Still in Papyrus's arms, Frisk turned back around and waved at the man with a smile as they were entering the zoo.

He waved back.

Frisk hadn't imagined the zoo to be as big as it truly was. The map wasn't drawn to scale and it had definitely showed that. The entire zoo would take about three hours to walk around without stopping to take pictures or anything like that. So, maybe more like three to four hours long. Because it was the winter, the crowds weren't nearly as bad as they normally were. Add that and the fact it was a weekday without any scheduled field trips, it was the perfect day for the group of monsters (and one human) to go explore the zoo. Toriel had seemed a bit nervous and excited at the same time, wondering where they all should go. Sans had just suggested to follow the map, and the group seemed to think it was the best idea, so they took it.

The first exhibit was the giraffes, where you could even feed them graham crackers! A few giraffes were walking up to the elevated platforms, where you could be on eye level with the animals, to kids swinging the treats in the air at the tall beasts. The group watched in fascination at the animals, gasping at how big it was. Frisk realized that being in the underground for so long, they weren't used to seeing the animals that the Aboveground had to offer. This was going to be as eye-opening for them as it was for them.

Sans had bought a few crackers for the group to feed the animals with. With only the children for an example, the group of monsters hesitantly went up to an empty spot to beacon down a giraffe to come over and get a bite. None of the animals had really noticed and didn't come by at all. And the ones who usually noticed were busy. It had appeared that all the good ones were currently taken, leaving only a few who were either too short to reach up and get one, or didn't really care.

After a few minutes, a few of them began to get impatient."Oh, come ON," Undyne groaned and threw her cracked in frustration. It had spooked one that was thinking about approaching, quickly startling them into jumping and running away. The group turned to the fish lady, whose earfins were twitching, and gave her a cold look.

"Good job there, Undyne," Sans sighed. "We're definitely getting them to like us."

"LET'S TRY TO BE TALL LIKE THEM!" Papyrus grabbed Frisk and lifted them up and placed them on his shoulders "IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM, RIGHT? AND BESIDES, THEY MIGHT THINK THAT WE'RE ONE OF THEM!"

"That or they'll think you're trying to fight them," Undyne groaned, now frustrated with their lost cracker. She slumped against the railing and threw her head back in anger, growling slightly.

"Undyne, stop being so aggressive," Toriel scolded. "This is suppose to be relaxful for everybody!"

"L-like this," Alphys had observed the way that kids had done it and had the cracked on display in front of them, holding it out. Her hand was steady as it held the beautiful cracker over the railing, silently begging an animal to approach. Turned out that the scientist wasn't completely nuts as an animal saw the treat and began to come closer to the group.

Sans and Toriel, and now Undyne, who wasted her cracker, hung out in the back to let the other three get their turn first. The three were so excited that the giraffe was coming lifted their crackers higher up in the air to get to see the giraffe's long neck stretch to get the treat. As it stretched the get Papyrus and Frisk's, the monsters gasped in awe. They were incredibly amazed at the sheer size of the giraffes, it was adorable. The head itself was so big as it nibbled on the crackers, it had amazed the monsters enough, but seeing the purple tongue was too much.

"OH MY GOLLY, IT'S PURPLE! PURPLE!" Papyrus screeched and took a few excited gasps. "THAT IS SO COOL!"

Alphys watched with her scientist eyes sparkling with delight. "It is!"

As Papyrus and Alphys watched in awe of the purple tongue reaching out for the crackers, Frisk was able to reach over and pet it's long face. The fur was soft, but scratchy, making it an interesting texture to grasp at. The giraffe seemed to be interested in the creature petting it's head and bent it's head to view the human more closely. Frisk had beamed at this and let the giraffe lick their hand, the long tongue wrapping around Frisk's wrist.

"HUMAN," Papyrus gasped. "IT'S CHOSEN YOU! HOW EXCITING!"

The taller skeleton seemed to be happy with the giraffe making friends with Frisk up until it had began to lick their face and their fuzzy hair, causing them to laugh loudly with glee. At that point, he took a step back and gently pushed the giraffe's head back a bit. "NOW, I'M SORRY GIRAFFE, BUT YOU CANNOT HAVE MY TINY HUMAN. WE JUST GOT THEM BACK AND I WON'T LET YOU TAKE THEM TO RIDE ON YOUR SHOULDERS. THEY ARE MY FRIEND."

Frisk giggled as Papyrus turned away from the now disappointed giraffe. "Papyrus," they groaned with laughter. He picked them off his shoulders and shifted them around in his arms.

"NO, I AM SORRY, FRISK," he put them down on the ground and bent down to be on their level. He put his hands on their shoulders and smiled lovingly at them. "BUT I MUST KEEP MY PROMISE TO PROTECT YOU, JUST LIKE I SAID I WOULD."

Frisk nodded, feeling loved, and looked at the giraffe, now walking away with a slight stomp in it's step. By the time that they turned back, half the group was moving on, and Papyrus was starting to stand back up. Frisk quickly reached out and plucked his hand out of the air to hold onto as they walked. Papyrus seemed to be happy with that and silently held their hand, even if he had to bend heavily to the side to hold it.

The rest of the zoo was similarly like the giraffe experience. All the animals were curious of the monsters and had come up near the glass to see what exactly they were, causing Frisk a lot of excitement. Some of the animals (more so the predators) had saw them as a threatening opponent (more so Undyne) and had pounced at the glass, causing Frisk and Alphys (and a bit Papyrus) to scream as Undyne sneered at the animals with her sharp teeth. But, after Papyrus had plucked them up into the air out of instinct, Frisk laughed and laughed in glee. Papyrus had shared their excitement, but on more extreme levels and had even tried to pet some of the more dangerous animals after he realized they weren't in danger. Undyne had challenged him to whoever had gotten the most pets, or had managed to steal an animal, would win.

Win what, exactly, Frisk didn't know, but also didn't want to know. Toriel had forbidden Frisk to enter the contest, but that was okay by them. They liked having both their hands anyway.

Despite the animals taking a shining to the monsters and small human child, the humans didn't exactly share that same view. Acting like some of the predators, some humans threw insults at the monsters as they walked throughout the zoo. A lot of dirty glares had been given to them as they passed the group, sometimes yelling it across the way. At first it was just a few people, who Frisk didn't really bother to care, too excited to bring themselves to care at the minor looks they were getting. But as time went on, more and more parents were being rude about it, even going as far as to loudly tell their children they wouldn't attend a zoo that "allowed the animals to run a muck."

Frisk began to care.

The monsters were starting to as well, but were trying to hide it for Frisk's sake. They knew that the child, if they ever been to the zoo before, didn't have much experience with it and wanted to make their day a good one. At times, Frisk could hear Toriel reminding them to keep their cool, but it was beginning to get harder to do so. When the humans were especially rude, Frisk really wanted to let the people know that their judgment was hurtful and it wasn't cool in any way. By at that point, somebody, usually one of the skeletons, had tugged them along and told them something to cheer them up.

But at one point, enough was enough.

When they had seen the penguin exhibit, they decided that it was time for a break. The human and the monsters had found a good bench to sit on and munch on the food that they brought. Frisk had even given Undyne a cracker to replace the one that was destroyed earlier, and Undyne thanked them for it, biting it to shreds within seconds. The group was having a nice time, telling stories and talking about which animal they liked best so far. It was pretty nice, actually, and Frisk was being told a pretty good joke by Sans the time that it happened. A group of humans were walking by and saw the monsters sitting peacefully together. The children were almost ecstatic when they had saw them and pointed to them, gasping in awe, talking about how cool it was to see them. This caught the adults' attention and they were by the far the biggest jerks of the day, to describe them in a kid friendly way. They were supporters of LOHAM by the looks of it and they took things way too far.

They had cursed at them from afar, effectively cutting into the group's discussions like a knife.

Undyne retorted at them, standing up, not being one to take anything sitting down. The former queen had ordered her to sit down, but by then, the human adults began to get riled up and slurred at them, threatening them. Sans had gotten into the fight as well, hands itching to take the bracelet off to show the humans what a bad time could feel like.

Well, at that point, the humans had felt threatened and threw a rock at the group.

Luckily, it didn't hit, but the monsters were so upset by it that they had just gotten up and left in a scramble. Sans and Undyne were at the back of the group, seething with rage. Frisk was very pretty sure that if it weren't for Alphys and Papyrus begging them to come with, there would've been a fight on their hands.

When Frisk looked back at them, they could see both shaking with the effort not to go back and crack the humans' skulls together. Briefly, they wondered why Sans didn't use his magic to do something minor to them, but realized that the bracelets had still restricted them from doing so. The group, minus the human, were still being watched by both bystanders and the LOHAM supporters. No matter what the monsters did, they wouldn't ever be able to fight back, or be able to stand up for themselves. They had to take it otherwise it would be publicized that the monsters were fighting back, causing more chaos than needed. Things were going to get worse for them. If they did fight back, things would get escalated into a war. If they let this happen, then people would think it'd be okay and they would be abused the rest of their lives.

Well.

Frisk wasn't a monster.

They stopped walking and turned around. The continuous footsteps indicated that those in front, lead by Toriel, didn't really see that Frisk turned, but Undyne and Sans certainly did. Once the two saw the child, they briefly stopped, scowling, expecting them to try and talk to them to cheer them up. The two wanted to let the child know that they refused to be cheered up, but were surprised to see them march past without a glance in their direction. The two looked at each other briefly before stopping completely to watch as Frisk continued to march past them, fierce determination on their face.

"Hey, uh, Frisk?" Undyne spoke up. "What're you-"

Frisk ignored her friend and kept marching.

In fact, they kept marching until they were directly in front of the group of people that threw the rock, among other things, at their friends. Their hands were bundled into fists at their side, breathing deeply to calm their rage. It was outrageous, simply because they didn't look alike! Just because they weren't the same!

It enraged the child. Screw keeping it cool, these fuckers needed to be yelled at.

"Hey," Frisk spoke up. They could be loud if they wanted to be. Not very loud, but loud enough to tell off an adult. When the group didn't turn Frisk took a deep breath, frustrated before beginning again. "Hey!" When the people had turned to face the child, they felt a prick of fear pick up. They had to swallow it before continuing on.

They pointed a (somewhat shaking) finger over at the group of monsters, who were now stopped where Frisk left them to view what their human friend was doing. Sans was hovering slightly closer than before, in case something happened, but other than that….the spotlight was on Frisk entirely.

"That wasn't cool," they said simply. "You shouldn't have done that. You didn't need to be like that."

"Look, kid," an adult male stepped forward. "I don't care. They ain't got no right being here, and no kid should be here tellin' me what I should or shouldn't have done." He waved a meaty hand at them to shoo them away.

Frisk stood their ground. "I do when it involves my friends," Frisk crossed their arms."You could've hurt my friends."

"And," The man questioned throwing his arms up in the air. "That would be bad because….?"

Frisk shifted their weight, eyes glancing to the left. "You can't see what's wrong with hurting others?"

"I see what's wrong with hurtin' humans! Not," he pointed his finger over to the group and increased his volume. "them damned monsters!"

Frisk didn't know what to say. They normally had an idea in their head of what they wanted to say, but reserved themselves more. They weren't normally allowed to talk in an argument, no matter what, so they weren't used to fighting for much. But, they had to. If it was going to effect their friends then they had to. It was just pressurizing and scary to have to think of a response within a second or two.

"What's the difference?" Frisk asked, suddenly having an idea, perking up. With the man shouting, more people were starting to pay attention. And with more attention, the more effective this could be.

"The difference is that I ain't hurtin' nobody! Now you need to shut up and go back to your parents before you get yourself in trouble, ya hear?!"

Frisk fidgeted before continuing on, trying not to flinch at his glare. "How do you know?"

"What?!" He took another few steps forward, hands shaking at his side. Sans had taken a few steps forward, almost directly behind their friend before stopping, glaring at the man with a hint of blue around the edge of his eyesocket. Frisk felt their heart pick up pace and asked how they knew they weren't humans. "Because they ain't people!" He stomped and took a step closer, eyeing Sans. "They ain't ever gonna be like people!"

"But they feel," Frisk felt a bit braver. "They think, they feel, they cry."

"And?!"

"That's what humans do, right?" Frisk began to feel the corner of their mouth shift into a smile, but they forced it down. Out of the corner of their eye, they could see more people listening in, animals forgotten entirely.

"But they ain't human! They don't look alike! They don't look like us!" He was full on yelling, spit flying out of his mouth. "So they ain't human! They don't feel or-"

"I'm sure that's what they said about other races before." The man stopped. "Like with blacks, or with the native americans." They shrugged. "Just saying that what you're saying has been said before, mister." They turned and began walking, Sans placing a protective arm around them. "But, hey, they don't look like us, so how would I know? I only live with them."

The man stood, silenced, mouth agap. One of the kids pulled on his shirt and asked him what that meant. Another kid told them that it meant the kid's dad was racist towards monsters and the kid gasped, turning to the father.

"It's not true, daddy! Tell them it's not true!"

The silence that responded the question made Frisk smile.


	10. The One with the Mayor

"STOP!" Frisk screamed, it stung their throat to do so. They weren't used to this much talking, begging, let alone screeching at the top of their lungs for it.

The man didn't stop. He raised his arm, weapon in hand. In turn, Frisk raised theirs, hand outstretched to protect them and the small monster underneath them. They were vaguely aware of the shaking the two innocent souls were doing, but were more concerned with the evil glint in the man's eyes.

"I'll stop when the monsters are gone," he snarled and threw down his weapon upon them.

It was a normal day. It truly was a normal day. June twenty-seventh had started out like any other day for the child. They woke up, they got ready for the day, they went out to meet a friend at their favorite restaurant, and then this. The event that would be marked in history for all textbooks and internet geeks to gap at, wondering what it must've been like to be the one to change everything. In all actuality, this day wasn't any different from others. Frisk supposed that it must've all been like that. When somebody dies, or history made, it might've been a normal day, that's why it makes it so significant. Nobody could've predicted the future like that.

Frisk closed their eyes tightly, trying to prepare for the incoming pain and shouts from all around. It was a normal day. And it started with them twitching in their sleep on a skeleton's couch, wearing a cartoon shirt for pajamas.

* * *

" _This all ends for me pretty soon." The words were spoken softly, giving the child a vague idea of where they were; what dream this was. Frisk kept re-experiencing this dream, but each time it felt like it was the first. And every time it lasted a bit longer, giving Frisk an idea of what happened afterwards._

 _Because this was the 'first time' again, Frisk was left with no recollection of what was going on, let alone where they were. Before they could decipher that, the ground below their feet left, as if they fell off a platform. If you ever had the rug ripped out from underneath you, or you slipped from a very high location, you might understand the fear that froze in Frisk's chest. The air swirled around them as they fell, pushing their hair up and messily mixing it with the air. Frisk only saw their hair (when did it get that long? They still had very short hair from months ago when their biological mother shaved it off.) fly up with their limbs reaching above them. Their limbs briefly circled around, trying to find anything to grab onto to save them. They didn't find anything, of course, and fear grabbed onto the child's heart, refusing to let go._

 _Before they could really even truly grasp what was going to happen if they don't find something, anything, to grab onto, they felt the ground smack their back. A loud sound gasped out, matching the sound of a pancake being flipped. A little "plap" sounded out, mixed with something breaking. Frisk didn't feel anything that they might've landed on. Thier back was numb now though. For a brief second, nothing happened. They laid there, wherever there was, with their mouth open like a fish gasping for air. It was like a brief pause before the pain set in._

 _It settled in briefly, sending chills running up Frisk's body, but it didn't last long. It was as though somebody had turned on a microwave, only to turn it back off a few seconds later. Frisk didn't even have time to truly feel much of the pain. When the pain started to leave their fingertips, the numbness quickly set in. Then the fatigue in their body took over. Frisk was quickly getting tired, the numbness telling them that it was a good idea to take a nap._

 _The last thing that Frisk could truly remember, or even feel, as their senses shut off was the sound of somebody screaming their name from above. It didn't even register to the child that all of this had taken place in about ten seconds._

 _It didn't occur to Frisk that this was their death._

Frisk woke up with a start, heart pounding in their chest. Their arm shot out and grabbed their chest, shirt clenched tightly between their trembling fingers. For a few seconds, Frisk sat there in their bed, shaking with panted breaths. Sweat beaded together on their forehead and dripped down slowly. It felt cold against their hot skin.

Then things began to slowly work in Frisk's brain. This wasn't the first time they woke up like this. Ever since the dreams came back after their break, the short, sweet, break, Frisk had learned how to counsel themselves. Especially when they weren't with their friends or over at their house. They started to take deep breaths and counting before reflecting what was going on to trigger some more gears to turn correctly. Thier chest rose and fell, each time slowly (but surely!) helping their heart slow down a bit. It was nice to be able to not feel their heartbeat beating in their teeth.

"Think," a shaking voice whispered. It didn't take them long to figure out that it was their own speaking out in the dark room. "What's going on?"

Toriel was currently with Asgore, out of the state getting some business taken care of for the monster/human relationship thing going. It was a tremendous burden to have to try and make humans listen that monsters weren't evil and they weren't going to try and kill every human. No, they weren't planning to overtake the world, just co-exist. No, they weren't going to harm the humans. No, they weren't open to going back underground until things were a better time. That time wouldn't ever come and you know it.

Frisk was almost glad that they didn't have the responsibility of taking care of everything like that. But at the same time, it was kinda disappointing. It would've been fun, if you could call it that, to make people understand that monsters and humans both just wanted peace. It would've been great to be able to make a difference, especially one that big.

In the meantime, Frisk was staying over with the skeletons. They were more than happy to take the human in for the time. After all, they had an entire house to themselves and didn't mind sharing their couch. (Papyrus had offered his own room for Frisk to sleep in, but the human declined, saying that they'd much rather have the couch to themselves. A good ol' blanket and throw pillow never hurt anybody. It was better than sleeping alone in an empty house anyway.) It'd been about three days since Toriel left, but she still sent Frisk tons of goofy messages and funny jokes, sometimes even a picture.

It was nice to have a loving mother, Frisk soon discovered.

As their breathing and heart rate both slowed, Frisk was able to lean back into the pillow on the armrest. They watched above as the ceiling fan turned around and around in a circle. It was just after the school year ended, and Frisk graduated middle school. With Toriel's help, they were able to jump ahead to the eighth grade and finish with straight A's, and more importantly, on the honor roll. And while the child was eager to start school, both figured that it'd be best to start out a freshman when the next year started. This didn't keep Frisk from doing the summer work, and was already reading some of the required material for the summer, halfway through the dialectical journals and other shit that nobody really liked.

Frisk really enjoyed the book that they picked out from the long list of approved books for summer's required reading. Who knew that To Kill a Mockingbird would still be relevant to current events today? The racism (speciesism?) that existed today was getting worse and Frisk wanted nothing more than to see everything get solved and people finally realize what assholes they were being.

With these thoughts still ringing in their head, they slowly went back to sleep.

When they woke up, it was due to the sun being in their eyes. They yawned, stretched, and sat up respectively. Frisk opened their eyes and blinked a few times for them to adjust properly to the bright light filling the house. Said house was still quiet, which meant that the skeletons were out of the house. Papyrus never really was a late sleeper, and Frisk knew from last night's discussion that Sans was to go out and work (surprising everybody) on something in town. He was heading to Grillby's for lunch though, and had invited the human to meet them there. They must've been extra quiet to not wake them up again, which Frisk appreciated immensely.

Their bones cracked and popped back into places with Frisk stretching and getting up. The sounds had always made the skeletons smile, it was just something small that made them closer with each other. The reminder of that made them fill with determination to get through the day as best as they were able to,scary and confusing nightmare or not.

Frisk spotted from across the room the note from Papyrus, explaining that they were to text one of the brothers when they went go to meet Sans at the restaurant or if they were leaving for any other reason. He went on to say parental authority/skeleton in charge things, like don't forget to lock the door, don't eat the spaghetti in the back of the fridge, stay cool, etc, etc. Personally, Frisk already knew most of these things. And the coloring of the pasta in question was a turn off anyway.

A glance at the time revealed that it was nearing noon and Frisk should probably get ready unless they wanted to go out in their pajamas. Disregarding the fact that the yellow star on a red shirt was totally cool, especially matched with old shorts, they figured that this time they would skip going out with pj's. Next time definitely, but not this time. It was not a pj worthy day.

When they were freshly prepped for the day, they threw on some shoes and grabbed the spare key to the house. They also made a mental note to themselves to stop calling it the spare key, after all, the skeletons did give it to the human a few weeks after they were taken out of the hospital. It even had a small sticker of a skeleton head (cartoon, of course) on the key, further proof that it was to their house.

Just to make sure that the door was locked, Frisk made sure to push the door after they took their key out of the hole. Satisfied when it didn't give, they went on their way through the fair weather. The sun was bright in the sky, giving the city a nice gleam to it. The skeletons lived on the edge of the city, about a mile out. Luckily, there was a bus that went out over here. It stopped there about three times every day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and the last in the night. There would be some of a wait, but Frisk had their phone on them and it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to play on their electronic device.

Speaking of phones! Frisk sent the taller skeleton a message, telling him that they had left the house and were planning on waiting at the bus stop that was established for the monsters. They had put the phone in their pocket after a two second wait, but took it back out when Papyrus responded. He always made sure to respond to his friends' texts rather quickly.

The skeleton said that it was "COOL" and that Frisk was to "STAY COOL."

It was a forty five minute wait for the bus to get to the bus stop. Once the monsters were off, Frisk paid the driver, claimed a window seat and waited on their phone for their stop to arrive. It was really uneventful, quite boring actually. The people on the bus were scarce, but still there. Nobody talked with each other and Frisk sighed, enjoying the silence.

The silence didn't last long on the twenty seventh of June.

Once Frisk was off the bus deep in the city, they texted Sans their location to let him know that they were pretty close. He responded with a single letter, one rhyming with the word 'day' in response to that. They were basically opposites for talking. Frisk did most of it over text if they needed to, and Sans barely said anything. It was a good thing that Sans wasn't much for texting, Frisk was able to direct themselves to the restaurant without any distractions. The city was currently overflowing with people and it would've been a bad idea to text and walk at once.

The city was alive as ever, cars racing past each other, people furious with each other. (That's one thing that Frisk didn't envy of driving, it seemed to be so taxing on those who knew how.) The cars gave the streets some brief colors as they passed, but more came from the people rushing to or from work for their lunch break. Colorful shirts, business suits, and the clicking of sharp looking shoes and heels dominated the packed sidewalks. The sound mixed with talking, honking, and the ever present ringing of somebody's phone gave Frisk a slight headache, but they were almost used to it by now. Besides, the stale air smelt faintly of pretzels, giving Frisk a distraction and a fresh wave of hunger. Maybe they'd get a pretzel over at Grillby's if they had one. Sans would be able to drink more ketchup that route, at least.

As Frisk was imagining their lunch date with Sans, (hopefully he wouldn't pull any more of his pranks on them while they were together) a scream sounded. A few people had stopped and turned towards the general direction that the sound came out but few actually stopped for more than a second. Most carried on with their day. Frisk, as concerned for the well-beings of others as always, quickly turned and contemplated going in that direction. More people continued on with their day, as if nothing had happened. That was further proof that they needed to get over there. They knew that it would be a bad idea to go over there if something nasty was going on, but if somebody wasn't going to help….

A pulling sensation filled their gut. A minute passed with them just standing there, accidentally being bumped into by a few people.

Frisk, now assured that the authorities, or somebody, would surely be there now to help, turned and began to walk away towards Grillby's when the scream shouted out again. This time, with more fear stitched into it. Their desperate pleas for help and for whatever was going on to them to stop, more people paid attention. More halted in their walks, including Frisk. Those around, stopped or not, grew quiet and listened carefully. Sounds of something snapping quickly came, along with more, high pitched screams.

 _The hell with it,_ Frisk thought bitterly. They charged towards the screaming, sometimes dodging people, other times gently nudging them out of the way. The screams were coming from in front of city hall. City hall was actually a pretty nice place, most of the time. The mayor, Mayor Harry Thomas, was a very generous guy who enjoyed going to read to kids still in elementary school, public events, giving speeches to inspire people, was almost exactly like Asgore. In fact, he was in office today, word having it that he was due to give a speech today later after everybody was off work. He was pretty chill like that.

But today the building, occupied by the kind mayor or not, was being used out in the front. A man wearing a LOHAM shirt was carrying a whip and was lashing it out against a small monster, cowering a few feet away from his feet. The poor monster was a large pink mouse, with big ears and a green striped scarf wrapped around her entire body. She was on the ground, shaking with both pain and fear from the event happening to her. She was screaming out in a high voice, begging for help.

But nobody came.

Instead, a crowd of people had gathered around in a circle to watch the event unfold. Apparently the man had caught the mouse doing something wrong, probably existing, and dragged her over to city hall to give a public demonstration to what should be done to monsters when they did some crime of some sort. Many people had their phones out, taping the event for their social media purposes. Others were gasping, hands covering their mouths or eyes in shock. The man was shouting threats, and other nonsense towards the monster.

By the time that Frisk had arrived, the crowd was so thick that they had to get on their hands and knees to scoot forward past peoples' legs. When they were a good distance inside they were able to get back up on their feet and gently nudge people out of the way, softly apologizing to them. Nobody really cared that they had done so, more transfixed on the whipping than a small child trying to see better.

When Frisk was finally able to see what was going on, their world stopped. Time slowed to a stand still and Frisk was barely able to believe what was going on. A long line of black was slowly being tugged forward in the air, landing on the pink mouse with big ears. There was proof that the man was beating an innocent monster. But for what? There was no cause at all to this. Based on the cuts and bruises on the monster, Frisk could easily see that this had been going on for a while. Way too long. No monster...no, nobody, human or monster, should ever have to go through this. If this were a human, people wouldn't be just standing around, doing nothing but watching the show.

 _I can't be standing._ Frisk took a step forward. It filled them with determination. That step felt good. They quickly took another one. Then another. And another. The man was speaking to the crowd now and the hateful words struck Frisk almost like they themselves were whips. Their feet moved faster.

Before they knew it, they were sprinting over the steps where the man and the monster were. Frisk ran as fast as they did when they were in the meadow and the plants were on their tail. Frisk couldn't let themselves be slow, not this time. Even if it caused them to have another attack, they would get there as quickly as they physically were able to. They couldn't just let the monster suffer like that.

 _I have to do something!_

The man raised his arms up, oblivious to the child running at them as he spoke. "The monsters are the real villains here! Humans are the sole victims in this society now, thanks to these creatures." He nudged the monster with his foot, earning himself a small whimper. "I am doing nothing but cleansing out the filth in our city. Brothers, sisters, I ask for you to join LOHAM in this righteous movement. Come with me to take back our city!"

As he finally saw Frisk running towards him, he beamed. "Ah, a bright child. Even the young are beginning to see the right ways. Come, young one. Let us bathe in-." The man was cut off as Frisk quite literally shoved past him and skid on the ground to hover over the monster.

Their eyebrows were scrunched with worry and their eyes rolled over the damage. Lots of cuts on their small body, bruises to match. Undoubtedly swelling in the future. If only Frisk had healing magic! Dammit! Frisk cursed as they tried to help, but they didn't have anything with them that would help. Instead, they picked up the terrified monster, trying not to let the flinch given by the pink mouse bother them. "It's okay, it's okay," they whispered. "I'm here to help. You won't get hurt again." They cradled the monster in their arms in the most caring of ways that they were able to and prayed that it would be enough for comfort them until there were able to get more help.

Footsteps slowly approached the human and the monster.

Frisk took in a deep breath and looked up with their angriest expression that they've worn in a very, very long time. The man's face matched, if the protruding vein was anything to go off of. "What are you doing?!" He shouted. "Put it down!"

Frisk shook their head.

"We have to vanquish the city from the monster filth! Don't you see?! They're corrupt, they're taking our jobs, they want to go to our schools, they're ruining everything!"

"I'm not sure they're the ones who're corrupted." Frisk stood with the monster in their arms, clutching her closely. The mouse monster, who now trusted the one who came more than anything in that moment, huddled closer to their chest. "You hurt an innocent monster."

"..." The man glared down upon the child. He inhaled sharply "The keyword is monster, kid." He turned back to the crowd. "You see!? The monsters have begun to corrupt the young!"

Frisk didn't know how to respond to that statement. It was so blatantly wrong. Would people actually listen to it? How could they? He was so utterly wrong, the lie made up on the spot. But to their dismay, a few people began to clap at that.

Frisk reached up and grabbed his arm, turning him around. "Stop that!"

"Stop preaching the truth? Kid, you are far from bright after all! Here I thought we had a child of the future, but you're so naive-!"

"Stop lying!" Frisk's voice rose in volume. "You're not being honest. Monsters aren't doing _anything_ wrong, they're just trying to fit in with society."

His eye twitched with anger. "They're ruining our world. They're going to kill us all and destroy everything we hold dear. Is that what you really want?"

"If it means that people like you would be in charge and punishing the innocent, than yeah." Frisk glared at the man.

The man towered over the child and put his hands on his hips, pushing his chest out to make himself look bigger. "Then you're just as stupid as them." He shoved Frisk, forcing them to take multiple steps backwards. The mouse whimpered, despite Frisk continuing to hold their glare and stay standing. It earned them another push, then another. Finally, when they were close enough to the stairs, they tipped over and fell, rather hard, on the concrete steps. They weren't even able to catch themselves because they were still holding onto the mouse monster, sending their back into the steps' edge.

"If you could stand with anything, why would you throw yourself to them?" The man stood over them, putting a foot on top of Frisk's chest.

"Because they haven't done anything wrong!" Frisk coughed back, the numb pain on their back beginning to throb already. Before the man could list off the bullshit reasons why the monsters didn't belong in his eyes, they continued on. "I'll stand with the monsters any day, anytime. They're the exact same as us and I refuse to believe that anyone's body could keep them from doing anything I can."

The man took a deep breath and raised his whip. He shot it down and it hit Frisk's arm. It quickly stung and made tears shoot to their eyes. They refused to look at the wound, but couldn't bite back the shout of pain that reached their throat. The man cursed at Frisk and began shouting how if this was the only way of making Frisk see the truth, then so be it. LOHAM would do anything to make the people see the truth about the monsters. Frisk had turned to the side, allowing their body to take any more hits if necessary to protect the hurt monster. The monster began to cry along with Frisk and huddled closer for protection.

"STOP!" Frisk screamed, it stung their (already sore) throat to do so. They weren't used to this much talking, begging, let alone screeching at the top of their lungs for anything. Tears were dripping down their face and their heart was racing faster than they'd like to admit.

The man didn't stop. He raised his arm, weapon in hand. In turn, Frisk raised their own arm too, hand outstretched in a pleading way. It was shaking, but it also was a feeble attempt to protect them and the small monster underneath them. They were vaguely aware of the shaking the two innocent souls were doing, but were more concerned with the evil glint in the man's eyes.

"I'll stop when the monsters are gone," he snarled and threw down his weapon upon them.

Frisk turned and closed their eyes tightly, sobbing loudly.

The hit never came.

After a few seconds, they turned and saw the mayor himself, standing over Frisk. His face looked angrier than either of the humans had earlier. His hand was clenched on the man's arm, the other had grabbed the man's whip and stopped the leather weapon entirely. He twisted the arm with the weapon and tossed the whip to the side before pushing the LOHAM supporter back several steps.

"Get away from this child." He snarled under his breath. The man seemed to be stunned, especially when the kind man started to help Frisk to their feet. When the mayor noticed this, he scrunched his eyebrows together and snapped at the man. "Didn't you hear? Get!"

The man turned and hurried away, a figurative tail tucked between his legs.

The mayor turned to Frisk and hurriedly checked them over for injuries. "Now, are you alright, child?"

Frisk sobbed and didn't respond. He took that as an intimation and guided them up the steps, murmuring comforting words to both monster and human. "Let's getcha patched up inside, yeah? Away from all these pesky people with their phones and eyes."

Frisk would very much like to get away from all those things. Getting away would be very nice.

Inside, Frisk didn't really pay attention to their surrounding, they were slowly starting to absorb what had just happened to couldn't even bring themselves to realize that the city's most political figure had taken them inside city hall to get them fixed after having a whip graze against their hadn't noticed that the pink mouse with the big ears and green scarf had stopped crying either.

Mister Harry Thomas led the two down many hallways and stopped outside of a big wooden door. He fumbled around his jacket pocket for a second before pulling out something small and gold. He stuck it inside the door and gently nudged it open before gesturing inside for the other two. "It's my personal office, exclusive or honorary privileges only." He smiled at the two. "And I think y'all earned the honorary privilege for today's events."

Frisk made the man tend to the monster first, with surprisingly little effort. The mayor had dug around for some towels and anti-bacterial wipes before he turned all of his attention to the monster. He gave those for Frisk to use on themselves while he attended to the mouse's injuries. He had some monster snacks stored in a cabinet, which he fed to the small creature. Thanks to it's tiny size, the food went a long way and many of it's injuries were healed. More pink came back to her fur, even the scarf seeming to perk up in color. She began to squeak more frequently and began to timidly open up to the human and the mayor.

"Now. I do believe that I owe ya a mighty big apology. I heard the commotion and came out only to see y'all bein' tormented like that." The mayor glared at the window, despite the curtains who were keeping it closed. "That blasted group has been trying to get my support for too dang long, and I've been up to here with it!" He turned to look back at the two. "I won't tolerate anybody harming my citizens!"

He seemed to be super mad about what just happened, but he was really good with hiding it. The human child was also really good with reading emotions. With a deep breath he looked back up with guilt evident in his eyes. "I want you to know, young monster, and kid," he smiled softly. "I support the monsters. I truly do, but it's hard to keep everybody happy. If I were to come out and say it, things would get nasty right quick."

"You don't know if you don't try," Frisk said. "You should."

The mayor patted Frisk on the shoulder and beamed. "Maybe one day, I will. Now, lemme help ya out there."

Once Frisk was all cleaned up and given some mild pain medication, they were sent off on their way. The mouse had rubbed against them in a thankful gesture before they were off, scarf flying in the wind. It made Frisk amused to see how determined the small monster was to make the clothing bounce along like it was.

It took Frisk only a minute before they realized that they were beyond late for meeting the short skeleton at the restaurant and they jogged their way along the sidewalk to get there faster. When they burst through the doors to the flame monster's foodery, they spotted no skeletons whatsoever. A few monsters had perked up when Frisk showed up and were chattering among themselves, but said nothing to Frisk. The human child didn't have time to mess around and pulled out their phone, sitting down in a chair at a table, unsure why they didn't think of their phone before they half ran over here.

Sans texted their phone a number of times, each asking where they were. In the beginning, he had sent a picture of him and an empty bottle of ketchup, saying how "bonely" he was by himself. But after they didn't respond still, he grew worry some and began asking more seriously where they were. Papyrus had texted, asking if they had gotten there okay, but when he didn't get any answer either, he called three times.

Before they got through Pap's texts a new one from Sans came through.

 **there you are**

Frisk looked up and glanced around the restaurant, trying to find him. When they couldn't, they had even tried to stand up on their chair, they sat back down. And there he was, sitting down next to them. Frisk startled, jumping a bit.

Sans had a few beads of sweat running down his skull and looked like he had just had a heart attack. "Kid," he breathed and hugged the child close to his ribcage. He didn't let go for more than a moment, keeping them close to him. "What happened? When you didn't come I thought…" He stopped himself and brought them out of the hug, boney hands still on their shoulder."Where the hell were you? When I looked for you I couldn't find you."

The white circles in his eye shifted down towards the injury on Frisk's arm, covered by a matching white bandage. The circles quickly became smaller. He didn't say anything, but glanced back at Frisk. "Kid?"

Before Frisk could come up with a good enough excuse, somebody from across the restaurant called Frisk's name. "Hey, you're on the news!"

Every monster turned to the tv that was stationed on the wall. It displayed a news person briefly explaining what had happened in front of city hall, then the video. Somebody must've alerted the news about what had happened and sent in the video. But it wasn't just this video that they showed. Apparently Frisk had become a star across the internet and a few people had put up videos of them saving the monster kid, them completely dissing the man at the zoo, and now this. The newscast had connected the dots and were trying to figure out who exactly this human child was, seeing how they kept standing up for the monsters.

That part especially was talked about. Their words were being plastered everywhere by monster supporters within the two hours of the event and was currently going viral. It was both inspirational and made quite the stand. " _I'll stand with the monsters any day, anytime. They're the exact same as us and I refuse to believe that anyone's body could keep them from doing anything I can."_

Many were becoming big fans of the small human.

After the news was over, the entire restaurant began to cheer and clap for the human in their presence. Frisk was almost expecting somebody to come up and ask for their autograph. It was a great feeling and they were proud at the moment. They'd take a whip across the arm any day if that meant that the monster movement took strides in the right direction.

Their phone buzzed and it was Toriel. She was, of course, worried about her child and began questioning Frisk, but Frisk was trained on Sans's expression.

He seemed to be torn between being extremely angry, extremely proud, and extremely worried. But he just smiled on and wrapped an arm around the human protectively. "Kid, ya did good."

He'd find that human who dared hurt his friend and the other monster soon. There would be some words given, and a bad time handed out, but Frisk was okay. That was all that mattered to him at the moment.

Frisk giggled and hugged Sans back and he nodded. Yeah, that was all that mattered at the moment. "Hey, Grillby, get us some ice cream to celebrate!"

"Yeah!" Frisk beamed at their friend and smiled widely.

Sans beamed back. He'd go to any length to protect that smile.

Pyrope watched the newscast with the man from earlier in the room with him. The two of them were seated by a desk. Pyrope behind it in his very expensive leather chair, the man sitting in a cheap wooden chair. The man, (name classified but dubbed as Bob for now) sat in his chair with sweat traveling down his face. He was openly shaking and was turning red in the face.

"You're telling me," Pyrope turned the tv off and turned to Bob. "That you let the kid beat you like this? Now the mayor won't give us his support without Plan B!" Pyrope rose and slammed his fist into the desk. "What a mess! You know that Plan B was a last resort! We kidnapped that monster for you to kill and get supporters! It was an EASY mission, Bob! And what did you do?"

Bob swallowed. "I fucked up."

"You didn't just fuck up. You fucked up our plans!" Pyrope slid his hand across his desk, sending papers and his computer keyboard flying. "You don't fuck up this badly without trying!"

"Sir, please, I didn't mean to-"

"I lost a lot of support when it became apparent to the public what happened to Frisk because of me. Now this will lose us even more thanks to you hitting the SAME CHILD." Pyrope began to yell, but calmed himself down. He straightened his tie and marched around the desk in a scarily calm way. He stood in front of the Bob's chair and smiled politely. "Bob, do you know what will happen now?"

"P-plan B?"

"Good, Bob, you got that correct. I see you aren't completely incomprehensive of the English language." Pyrope took a deep breath and turned around, facing his desk. "But that's not the only thing that will happen. You caused me quite the mess and now I have to go in and clean it up."

"S-sir, please, I can do better…"

Pyrope shook his head with a sadistic grin. "No, I don't think you can."

The door opened and two men walked in. Bob swirled around in his chair, eyes wide. "Py-Pyrope?"

"Gentlemen, I'm glad you could make it. You're now hired for the job." The men smiled. "Start with him and then we can start discussing Plan B."

The men stepped towards Bob with menace in their eyes.

Bob closed his eyes tightly, bottom lip wobbling uncontrollably.

He didn't open them.

 **So I haven't updated in a while. Sorry about that, haha. I stayed up late getting this done for y'all, hope the length makes it up! Yeah, this isn't very happy of a chapter. But, this isn't going to be a very happy story. It's going to have happy moments, but not all of this will be fluff. Probably later, I'll have a happy chapter, but not for a while. Or maybe I will. We'll see ;)**


	11. The One with the Bike

"Hey, Frisk," Sans knocked on the open door to Frisk's room. The child had started to live with Toriel in a huge, roomy house. Frisk had their own room that overlooked the forest behind the house, giving them lots of places to look at when they ever got bored. It was pretty great and Frisk enjoyed living there a lot more than the house they shared with their parents back in the city. The view in this house was way better than the other one, skyscrapers were nothing compared to trees for Frisk. And the house had a ton of extra rooms, which was great until you had to clean it. And while the chores to clean the extra rooms were tedious, it was great to have a bunch of extra rooms to have.

Especially when friends could stay over in those extra rooms.

"Wanna see what I got today?" Sans leaned on the door frame with a goofy grin plastered on his face, knowing that the answer would more than likely be a 'yes.' Despite having no actual eyes in his sockets, his eyes shared the excitement that his smile shined with.

Frisk nodded, confirming his previous hypothesis, and got up from the floor, abandoning their homework to do itself. They followed the skeleton down the stairs and over to the door that led to the backyard. Sans muttered about being quiet, but Frisk already knew to do so. It was nearing the evening, and their friends were taking after-dinner naps before they slept for the rest of the night. So they made sure to be quiet about going outside, plus Papyrus's snores were heard all the way from the guest room.

Once they were in the back, Frisk stopped briefly to watch the setting sun was starting to peek through all of the branches with a golden crisp color. The plants that were touched by the light were almost dancing in the last bit of light before the night and moved in tempo with the gentle blow of the wind. Above them, the sky was mixed with a bright red and a creamy color of orange. To match the orange, creme color clouds lazily floated along the sky, only a few allowing the sun's rays to peak through. It was a really pretty sight. They always had preferred to see the sky castes over the forest than the city. With the intricate design of the trees, the birds flying overhead, even down to the smell of the earth and the sound of nothing but the blood flow in your head, it was second to none.

"Ya comin'?" Sans called over, gently getting Frisk's attention back onto their short mission. They smiled, nodded, and trotted back over to where he was waiting by something; the object in question covered in a white sheet. It seemed pretty big, the sheet was for a king-sized bed, so whatever he was hiding had to be of extreme importance. Especially if he had taken the sheet from out of the house and folded it over twice to make sure that all of it was covered.

"Got it off my own bed," he chuckled.

Frisk walked over to it and looked at it. Whatever the sheet was hiding was fairly big, but not enough to have the entire sheet over it. About a third of the sheet was on the ground, the other two thirds were covering the object. Sans had folded it over itself so it would at least be better covered, but still! what's so great he has to hide it? They turned to him with a big smile, matching his. "What is it?"

He strolled over, eyes closed, and he tugged off the sheet nonchalantly. And to Frisk's irritation he clearly took his time with revealing it. The sheet slowly drifted off of the object, first showing a big wheel underneath, then it continued on to show a nice, slick paint job of a motorcycle.

As the sheet fully was fully tugged off, Frisk's eyes widened to their full ability. They were almost as big as the dinner plates they ate off of earlier. Frisk turned their head, unable to decide whether to look at the skeleton or the motorcycle he had obtained. The motorcycle itself was a slick black color with designs across it. Mostly they were bones, but the side of the bike had a small dragon skull, with a touch of light blue surrounding it. It was very impressive and Frisk could see their reflection in it, despite standing a few feet away. It was the coolest bike that they had ever seen and they briefly wondered how the hell had Sans gotten off his butt to work long enough to pay for this.

Sans looked over at their expression and laughed hardheartedly. "Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw her."

Frisk looked at him closer in disbelief.

He winked at them."What? I can have nice things. I don't have a mean bone in my body."

Frisk dropped their expression and raised a single eyebrow.

"Aw, come on, kid, don't give me that."

The look stayed.

"I wanted this so bad…."

Frisk started to shake their head.

"You could say…."

Frisk started to glare at him and shook their head.

"I felt it in my bones."

Frisk groaned and tried not to laugh as they ran over to Sans and jumped onto him lovingly. Letting the kid tackle them to the ground, Sans tumbled to the ground and wrapped his arms around Frisk when he fell with an _"oof!"_ The two of them laughed quietly in the backyard. Well, Frisk laughed and Sans merely gave a few chuckles. He didn't let go of Frisk until they started to beg and even then he wouldn't. He went on with the act, pretending to fall asleep at one point. (Though Frisk wasn't completely sure if he was fully pretending.)

"Alright, alright, kid. Get up." The two rose with some effort and Sans's eyes seem to gleam again as he looked over his motorcycle. He sighed, thinking about something for a minute before he turned back to the human. "Go get your bike helmet, we're gonna take her for a spin."

Frisk perked up and dropped their jaw in excitement and disbelief. They were actually gonna ride it?! No way! Before they could absorb the consequences of it, they stood up. A smile broke out across their face as they took off back to the house, making sure to open and close the door quietly to not alert those who were inside, taking an early nap. They don't really remember grabbing their bicycle helmet, just that they were going too slow and that Sans would leave without them.

But he didn't.

He seemed to be admiring his version of a bike when they ran up to him, slightly out of breath. He turned to them with a glint in his eyes and he nodded at them. "Ready?"

Colors and wind wrapped around Frisk as they rode down the forest's dirt paved road. It was interesting to feel the air mix with colors at the speed they were going. The child had been fascinated at first, feeling like this was some ride at an amusement park, but when Sans began t turn they realized that this wasn't and they were able to go wherever they wanted. And it was fantastic.

The sun had set a while ago and Frisk never realized how great it was to be pushed against in the wind. They didn't think about having a jacket, and Sans being the expert he was on skin, didn't think about it either. It didn't really matter, Frisk was just glad to be going on a ride like this. Add that to going seventy miles an hour and Frisk was having the time of their life. They were holding onto Sans with a tight grip and were smiling into the swirling air, their short hair that poked through the helmet was flapping around in their face, but they couldn't care less.

Riding a motorcycle may be a bit dangerous, but this feeling that it had created within the two riders was great. The adrenaline was great, especially when Frisk knew that they weren't ever in any real danger with Sans around. He's proved to be too great of a friend to let anything happen to the kid, especially when it involved things like this. He didn't express it very much, but he was always a bit careful around those he loved. Papyrus didn't see this, or maybe he was just used to it. The brothers had really cared for each other, that's for sure.

Before long, Sans shifted in front of them and called over his shoulder, "Hold on tight!" Sans almost had to yell over the howling wind. He gripped the handles and made the engine roar loudly before picking up speed. If Frisk thought that they were going fast before, that was nothing compared to now. The wind started to scream in Frisk's ears and they had to cling to Sans now just to be able to stay on the motorcycle. They couldn't hear it, but they felt Sans chuckle to himself. Just for kicks, he popped a wheelie and started to laugh at that.

It was good to hear him laugh like this.

However happy he was at the moment almost evaporated for Frisk when the path that they were traveling on turned to gravel. And eventually that path they rode on ended and Frisk watched the colors of plants and trees fly past them. They were moving at a dangerous speed through a very not safe area to be riding a motorcycle. With a bit more adrenaline rushing into their veins, they turned to look forward, intending to ask Sans what they were doing, but ended up gasping in fright.

There, in front of them, was the face of a cliff. It was just flat rock, nothing in front of it. Nothing behind it, no opening or anything. Frisk wouldn't worry about it too much under normal circumstances, but going very, very fast on a motorcycle heading straight for it?

….That was a bit scary.

Frisk began to panic and pull at Sans's jacket in alarm. He didn't even turn his head to look at them. Well...in a way, he did. He turned, winked, and kept riding in the direction they were going. And he only scared Frisk more when he sped up the death machine.

Frisk gasped and tried not to scream, but it was impossible.

"Stop! Stop! Sans!" They grabbed his shoulder blade and started to shake it in fear. "Stop!"

He looked over his shoulder at them and turned his head to look at them. He said something, Frisk could hear his voice, but they couldn't understand the words. Their heart was beating heavily and quickly. Their throat was starting to get thick and they were having a hard time breathing, not asthma this time, thankfully. Just plain ol' fear racing throughout their body.

Frisk was desperately hoping that he would listen to them and stop whatever Knievel stunt he was pulling. But when he didn't show any signs of doing that, Frisk pulled a stunt that Sans wouldn't ever truly forgive them for as long as the human lived. They pulled their legs up and planted them on the seat in front of them. Sans, who felt them shifting around and got a bit nervous himself, didn't even have the time to look back behind them to ask just what the hell they were doing, when Frisk pushed back on their feet and leapt off of the bike to escape.

When Frisk landed, their arm took the blunt of the landing and they heard a mighty crack when began to human rolled around in the dirt for a while, over rocks, branches, leaves, the whole forest deal. They were vaguely aware that the motorcycle's noises had stopped by this time, but couldn't consciously make that connection. They continued to roll for a while, almost about ten or so seconds,but when one was in that moment like Frisk, those few seconds had scared them terribly.

When they finally stopped, they were aware of a few things that were going on around them. Firstly, they were aware of a striking pain in their arm. It was almost blinding, and demanded to be felt. Frisk immediately felt tears prick at their eyes and tried to keep calm enough to continue on the list. Secondly, they were aware of the motorcycle roaring engine from before was now muzzled and couldn't speak out into the night any longer. Finally, they were aware that a skeleton (who was usually so lazy to not get up from the couch and was known to take off his legs so he wouldn't have to) was sprinting over to them, muttering words that would turn this story into one rated M.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Sans cried to himself and skid in the dirt next to them and tried to lift Frisk off the ground, but immediately stopped at their cry of pain. Frisk clutched their arm closer to their chest and was trying their best not to cry when Sans had jolted it when trying to move them. They struggled against his grip, which was pretty tight for not having any muscles, and whimpered on in pain.

Sans, not taking well to this, began to panic. "What is it?! Frisk, what's wrong!?" Beads of sweat were dripping down his forehead and his pupils were pins among the darkness. If he had a heart, it would be pumping almost as badly as Frisk's. He could barely breathe, he couldn't handle it if Frisk was hurt because of him it would-

He stopped when Frisk began to sob again and his heart gave a squeeze.

It took a second for Frisk to swallow their spit and clear their throat out before they were able to speak clearly. "M-my arm. It hurts!"

Sans quickly began to scan his eyes over their arm and winced when he saw it. The arm was pretty banged up, taking most of the landing. A few cuts had ran over it and had produced a few nice bruises to go along with it, but other than that it seemed fine. "What's wrong with it, Frisk? I don't see anything wr-"

"It hurrrrts!" Frisk wailed and tried not to flinch when Sans continued to hold it in his hand.

"Alright, alright. Let's go back to Tori's," he sighed. He was SO in trouble for this. "We'll get ya patched up."

As soon as the two made it back to the house, Toriel was in fits. They had woken up to find that the two of them had disappeared. Papyrus had convinced them not to worry, they were probably okay. But when they had disappeared for a longer time, especially into the night, even Papyrus was starting to get worried.

Toriel was beyond mad and was super upset about Frisk being hurt. She was also upset that Sans had gotten a motorcycle and thought that it was a great idea to take the kid on a test-drive.

Regardless, they took Frisk to a doctor. They weren't allowed to take off their magic-preventing bracelets, and would probably be arrested if they did, even if they were using their magic to heal their friend. It distressed the monsters terribly and they all piled into Papyrus's car. Papyrus was trying to cheer Frisk up for the first part of the ride, but after she began crying, he just kept trying harder.

"IT'S OKAY, HUMAN, JUST IMAGINE OF WHAT WE CAN DO AFTERWARDS! MAYBE WE COULD BUILD A FORT OF PILLOWS OR WE CAN GO TO THE MOVIES OR GO GET ICE CREAM! MAYBE WE CAN BUILD A PILLOW FORT AND WATCH A MOVIE WHILE EATING ICE CREAM. WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?"

Frisk nodded and held their arm closer to their chest. Mr. Fancy Fox had accompanied the child. They were grateful that Sans had ran up and gotten him from their room while they were getting into the car. Or...at least, they thought he did. He just brought it in the car with them, but Frisk didn't see him go upstairs. He was confusing sometimes, but Frisk had learned about a month ago to just roll with it.

When they arrived at the doctors, they had to fill out forms about Frisk's health record. Most of which the monsters didn't know what it meant, and Frisk barely had a concept of it, and those that they did actually know what they were, they didn't know it because they hadn't been to the doctor for so long. Luckily, the nurse was very helpful and had called the hospital Frisk was at and was able to get the record transferred over. From there the doctor had declared that Frisk would need an x-ray to see what the proper damage was to it and that it would take a bit to do.

The two skeletons had been ecstatic about the idea of Frisk being a skeleton on the inside, and were even more so to actually see pictures of the evidence. So, telling the monsters that it would be fine and that the pictures didn't hurt, the doctors took Frisk back into the room and promised that they could keep the pictures of the x-rays.

Papyrus was talking about something along the lines of framing the picture and putting it with some family pictures when they got back home. Frisk smiled weakly at that and nodded, having a list of things to do when they were able to get this over with. It almost made everything a bit more bearable to deal with.

Once everything was said and done, the pictures came back to reveal to everybody that Frisk had a clean break in their arm. Frisk agreed, the pain had definitely matched the crack that was in their bone. Papyrus had turned into a mother hen and began to fret over Frisk, even though they were given medication and were currently choosing what color of cast they wanted. He didn't like how Frisk's arm was like that and demanded to know how they were being so brave about that and wow, that would've hurt so badly, it made Frisk feel a bit better.

Finally setting on red, Frisk's cast had been put on with specific instructions. They weren't able to take it off, put a plastic bag around it so it won't get wet, don't scratch it, keep it on at all times, etc, etc. The main thing that Frisk was focused on was the pain medication doses. They were to take a pill every so often until the pain subsided enough for them to go on without it.

And while that was great, they noticed how upset Sans seemed to be about all of this. Toriel and Papyrus were filling in the roles of the mother hens alright, but Sans seemed to be the guilty fox for hurting the small chick. Frisk began to feel a bit guilty for doing that and it made everything worse when they overhead Sans apologizing to Toriel about everything all over the place.

"I swear, I was going to do a trick that would've made them laugh, Tori. But then she jumped and-and…" Sans trailed off and dug his hands into his pockets. "I'm so sorry, I swear I didn't-"

"It's alright, Sans. Frisk is fine and things will heal, just like their arm."

Even Frisk could tell that Sans didn't really believe that, but didn't say anything.

When they got into the car again, the time was nearing eleven o'clock at night and Frisk was starting to get tired. Their eyelids were heavy and the medication was suppose to make them a bit sleepy didn't really help in that aspect. Sans was sitting in the back with Frisk and helped them put on their seatbelt when the cast had hindered their ability to put on the seat belt properly. Frisk muttered a 'thank you' and turned their head to the side, closing their eyes for a second. They felt Sans shift himself back and cracked open their eyes to see him stare out of the window sullenly.

Frisk blinked and looked down at Mr. Fancy Fox, whom was sitting next to Frisk in the middle seat. He was given, as Frisk found out, by the skelebros and the hat, and everything else fancy about the animal, was sewn on by Toriel. It had brought comfort to Frisk when they were upset and had became a precious item to Frisk, being the first gift they had received by somebody who wasn't a total stranger.

So, to make him feel better, Frisk picked him up and reached over to Sans's arm. They gently pushed it under his arm to make Mr. Fancy Fox sit with Sans. He noticed, and looked over, without moving his arm. He blinked at it for a second before glancing up to Frisk, his smile seeming less forced than before.

"Heh. Thanks, kiddo."

Frisk nodded, a tired smile on their face.

 **Somewhat of a filler chapter, hope this was good :) Sans is a pain in the ass to write, so enjoy haha. Also! If you've seen/wanted to draw some fanart of this, I'd love to see it. Like it would instantly make my day. Aaand probably would get a few chapters out quick as a reward ;D**


	12. The One with Frisk's Birthday

Frisk was in trouble.

No, Frisk didn't do anything illegal (okay, maybe a little, but everybody does it! And it's not really illegal, just frowned upon.), Frisk didn't have sex, Frisk didn't even think of the word drug. No, no, what Frisk did was much, much worse than all three of those combined. And Frisk knew that while it was frowned upon, especially by Toriel, Alphys and Undyne had convinced them to go through with it. All and all, it was pretty fun. Until Toriel got the phone call and had demanded that the three come back to the house to have a talking to, that is.

See, what Frisk did was probably at the top of the list for the things that angered Toriel. Probably in the top three, definitely in the top ten category.

Frisk had skipped school. And it wasn't for the best of reasons either. Frisk was convinced by the other two monsters to go to a local anime convention that was taking place on a Friday and would continue through the weekend. At first Frisk was a bit put off by it, not having seen many animes, but the two had eventually broke the child and got them to come with. And Frisk had to admit, it was a ton of fun, much more than they expected to have. They had brought about twenty dollars with them but it wasn't enough for even a shirt.

At the actual con, it was an unspoken agreement not to leave the group where they were because if they did it would take a while, even with phones, to get back to each other. That and Frisk was kinda worried that if they did leave, the other two would get into a fight over something silly like shipping or how the new season of Mew Mew didn't go well. And with the high strides they were making with the monster movement, Frisk really didn't need to deal with a fight started by a monster. That would send them back weeks in their movement.

All and all it was lots of fun. No fights broke out, Frisk was able to get a small squirtle doll from a stand, and the two monsters were complimented on their cosplay. And yes, they did actually make a pretty decent cosplay. Frisk didn't know who they were suppose to be, but based on the amount of photos taken of the two, they guessed it must've been pretty good. It was going great, until Toriel called and demanded that the trio return.

When Toriel, the usually sweet goat mother that had adopted Frisk, found out why Frisk had ditched, the horns literally came out. Toriel turned red, bellowed at the three when they arrived back home, played the guilt trip card, and had even made Frisk leave the room for a few minutes to have a private chat with the two monsters. Frisk swore that they were able to see smoke coming out from her ears when they left the room. Probably due to the fire magic that she was able to cast, even with the restraining bracelet on, monsters were able to do a little. A very little, limited magic, but still enough to let people who come across them know what they can do.

Frisk was currently in their room, checking the photos they had gotten today while Toriel was chewing the other two monsters out. The human felt a pang of pity towards them, but knew that they wouldn't be able to do anything for their poor souls.

When silence reigned over the house for more than a few seconds, Frisk lifted their head to their door. If it was silent, that meant that Toriel was done ranting at the two for being a bad influence and how they were very bad for doing that, how important education was, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, Frisk knew everything that was going on with their classes, and it's not like they would be doing much of anything. After all, freshman year on a Friday? No. Nothing important would ever happen, advanced classes or not. But Toriel still had them attend each day and today was the first that they had missed all year.

So they had to guess that it was to be expected that Toriel would be upset. She was a teacher after all, along with Frisk's surrogate mother. They had lived with Toriel for a while now plus the dreams, which by the way stopped appearing altogether, had taught them that Toriel meant business wherever she went. So when the silence dominated everything, they knew what was next.

It was their turn to be yelled at. When the footsteps sounded out, moving closer to Frisk's door, the child panicked and hid their phone under their pillow, not wanting to fork it over like they were expecting to do for punishment. Then the door was knocked upon and Toriel's irritated voice carried through the wood. Frisk gulped and sent a silent prayer that she wouldn't go too hard on the child and told their mother that it was indeed okay to come in.

After all the gentle scolding and explanations of why what Frisk had done was wrong, the verdict was settled with no complaints from Frisk. The poor child had to fork over the phone that they were hiding. Though they were given points for creativity on that, they weren't allowed to have it back until the following Friday. A week punishment for a day of school lost. In Frisk's eyes it was about fair, after all they had went behind Toriel's back and whatnot. And it wasn't like Frisk didn't have a phone for the longest time anyway, they were quite used to not having one.

But that did mean that on Monday they wouldn't have one. And Monday Frisk especially wanted to have it with them to take pictures with. It was going to be their first birthday with a family that cared and they wanted to have those special moments on their phone. Maybe somebody could take the photos on their phone and send it to Frisk's. Or even better, maybe Toriel would let them have it for an hour and they could take multiple selfies with their friends to help balance it out.

Either way.

The weekend passed without much to report. School rolled around too quickly for the childrens' liking and all were legally forced onto their buses, homeworks finished and shoved out of sight into their bags, many pencils lazily sharpened for the dreaded Monday. After their first cup or three of coffee, most were starting to wake up. Everybody was still sleepily making their way to classes with bags under their eyes. Frisk was at the time making a list of reasons why Mondays should be half days in their classroom, already awake and ready to go. They were going to try and get to school to start much later in the day on Mondays. If they were able to go in at noon instead of seven in the morning, there would be many beneficial factors to it. So far the astute child was up to four reasons on their paper. People would be more focused, it was a good adjust day to get back to work, the schools usually opened up too early for developing brains, and it would give them all plenty of time to grow in their sleep.

Their scratchy handwriting was proving brightly and they smiled discreetly to themselves, there was no way anybody could reject this! They were so absorbed into the paper with the reasons that they didn't even realize that class had started until the teacher approached their desk with tired footsteps.

As Frisk was hastily scratching the fifth reason of getting a better breakfast on their list, a bright neon pink note was dropped on their desk. They blinked at the square slip that now sat with them on the desk and glanced back up at their teacher with a questioning look. The teacher mumbled about how their mother called the office and left that note for them before staggering back to their desk.

Reason number six, they wrote quickly before they read the note. Teachers would be in a better mood.

Once they were done with reason number six, they picked up the note. The front office lady had probably written it and sent a kid to deliver it to Frisk. It only said that their mother had indeed called and left a message for them saying that Frisk was to meet their mother after school for a ride to their birthday dinner.

Well.

That was nice. Odd, but nice. It was odd because usually Frisk didn't mind taking the bus and Toriel got home much later than Frisk did, that's why they took the bus in the first place. Even though they were monsters, they weren't slobs. They all had jobs of their own, (Sans included questionably) and would normally get home around five or six in the evening. But okay. Maybe Toriel was able to get away from their work for today so they could celebrate. It made Frisk a bit uneasy, trying to guess how all of their friends could get off of work just like that to meet Frisk. Surely, one of them would have had to work?

Oh well, maybe it was just a Toriel and Frisk type of dinner. Frisk would find out.

When the final bell screeched to release all the exhausted and stressed out high schoolers, Frisk rushed to the front of the school, where the parents would pick up the kids who didn't drive. And being twelve years old, the youngest enrolled in the high school, Frisk clearly did not drive. However, they didn't spot any familiar car in the line of parents. It was a pretty long line, and would take about twenty or so minutes for all of it to clear out. Frisk went over to the stairwell and sat down on the steps, prepared to wait out the line for their surrogate mother.

But when they didn't spot Toriel anywhere, they began to get concerned. They didn't see her car, or Papyrus's. In fact, they didn't recognize any of the cars in the lot, even though they watched about ninety five percent of the line disappear. When they noticed their bus pulling away from the school, they stayed a bit longer than they probably should have looking for the car. Well, it was an easy fix, they would just call Toriel and see where she was at. Maybe they were waiting at the back of the school. Or maybe they were just waiting for their call to make sure that Frisk didn't get on the bus. You know, if Frisk had a phone to call with.

They scowled.

They were about to ask another kid for their phone to dial up their monster mommy when a horn honked repeatedly across the lot, effectively catching everybody's attention. As soon as Frisk saw who it was, they froze in place and tried not to let their face be seen. But by the way a blonde women was out of the car's window, waving enthusiastically at Frisk, they knew it was too late. The lady was yelling at their "darling child" and climbed back into their car, only to get out and walk over, continuous letting everybody know that Frisk was theirs. Their screeching voice reached all the way across the parking lot and several heads turned to Frisk, many with attaching smiles and snickers. Frisk, however, was not smiling. Their eyes widened at the sight, both from second hand embarrassment, and from a slight amount of fear.

Even Mettaton wouldn't be this dramatic even if he tried.

"Your mother called." The words of Frisk's teacher rang in their ears and their heart rate slowly began to climb.

No. No way.

"She is going to pick you up."

There was a restraining order, wasn't there? She and Pyrope weren't allowed within a hundred meters of them.

"FRISK!" Their biologically mother squealed as she wrapped herself around Frisk as soon as they were in reaching distance. "I missed you so, so much."

Frisk didn't respond. They couldn't think clearly enough.

"Happy birthday," their mother sang in their ear with an almost clear sound of resentment under their happy tone. They pulled back, smiling brightly. Her hair was blonder than Frisk recalled, and the ends of her hair were curled in an unnatural angle. Her lipstick matched the bright red car she drove, and it only attracted attention to her perfectly straight teeth. It bothered Frisk. "Ready for dinner?"

Frisk stared at the woman with dinner plates for eyes. Their brain was starting to work more clearly and gears were turning slowly. "You...you shouldn't be here." Frisk stammered. "You and Pyrope both a-are…"

"Oh, he won't be joining us, sweetie. The restraining order is just for him, I checked." She winked at them. "I wanted to be able to see you, so he's staying far away from us tonight. Just us girls tonight, dear."

Frisk blinked again and scrunched up their eyebrows. However foggy their brain still was, they did see that red flag go up. "You said I was a boy before. What changed?"

Their mother's face flickered for a second. Just for a short second, her face twisted into a grimace and her eyes closed before they pulled their happy mask back on and tightened her hands on their shoulders. "It's your birthday, Frisk. Let's go get something to eat to celebrate, okay? My treat."

They wanted to protest, ask if Pyrope had 'changed' their mind in some way, but they didn't have time before their mother began to drag them across the parking lot over to their car. "You can even pick the restaurant." Frisk's mother opened the door and practically threw Frisk into the seat before closing the door, not gently, and crossing over to her side. Once they were pulling out of the parking lot, Frisk gulped. Tonight wasn't going to be fun.

The only sound in the car was a soft jazz station that they knew their mother only listened to when she was stressed out for whatever reason it was that day. The scent wasn't of a new car, it was almost spicy and it assaulted their nose immediately upon sniffing the air. Definitely too much perfume was sprayed in here. It was silent in the car, save for the jazz, for a moment before their mother flickered their eyes over to Frisk with cautious warning in her eyes.

"I want to make something apparent to you tonight, okay? I just want a normal conversation. No monsters, no misgendering yourself, nothing. Jerry won't be joining us, but I don't want anything brought up that would make him upset. I have had enough stress today and I just want a peaceful dinner between us. Like we used to have. When things were normal."

Frisk thought bitterly and bit their tongue so they wouldn't say anything. Great.

"I just want tonight to be mother and so...er..daugh-...hm. Mother and child." Their mother forced a smile upon their face and it made her look like one of those models wearing wigs at Party City. Google it. Party City wigs. See it and you're gonna see exactly what Frisk was looking at.

"Do I make myself clear?"

Frisk took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Some birthday this would be.

"Transparently."

The dinner was at Red Lobster. It was pretty close to the place Frisk was when they saved the mouse monster, City Hall. The neighborhood over in the area was really nice, it was where most rich people lived. Lots of big houses and gardens, opulent statues everywhere, this restaurant even having a pond in the back with a bridge you could walk on. Many weddings happened over here, making this Red Lobster very pricey and much more upscale. Frisk was in the mood for some fish that night, and if their mother was buying, there was no limit to the money spent. Plus, who could resist their bread rolls? They were delicious!

They were sat down next to a wall of windows with fishing ornaments hanging down off of the windows. The wood in the clear glass was designed to look old and water worn, giving it more of an authentic fishing place look, even if the fine dining and table settings said otherwise. (What fisherman needed seven different forks to eat a fish with?) All over the walls were signs and different types of fish that were either caught and stuffed or simply plastic. The bread rolls rested in a basket with a cloth underneath rather than just paper like most other restaurants offered. When Frisk was a kid there would be a man dressed up as a lobster and would go table to table and take pictures with the kids. It was a pretty cool place and Frisk really liked seeing some of the aquariums here. Except the lobsters at the front. When they found out what happened to the lobsters when they were a kid, it quickly became something sad to look at.

However cool the restaurant was, it was nowhere near to the level of Frisk and their mother over at table sixteen. Their conversation was non existent, as Frisk had more or less expected. Their mother was silent and looking outside nervously or on her phone the entire time. Frisk didn't feel much except the feelings of bitterness and longing. They were used to being ignored by her, but why did she have to do this on their birthday? The fact of her caring was great but...

I could be with a family that cares about me. Frisk thought bitterly and tried to push the bitterness feeling deeper inside. They would worry about that later, for now they were to...er, enjoy their mother's company. Besides, it wasn't often that Frisk could come to this Red Lobster. But forcing it down was a lot harder than Frisk had anticipated. For one thing, they saw their old friend, Grillby working there. He was one of the bartenders here, as Frisk had learned from Sans. He waved happily to them when he saw them across the room, but Frisk was only able to smile back because if their mother saw, they would realize Frisk was waving to a monster and that wouldn't have gone over too well. Their mother might have even pulled out an excuse to get them out of there and go to another place to eat and they weren't about to let that happen because of a monster.

So the silence reigned on instead.

Nothing was said until after their meals were served, Frisk getting a shrimp scampi and a side of vegetables, their silence was replaced by the sounds of eating. Their mother had asked them how their food was and not lying, Frisk told her that it was pretty good. Frisk always had enjoyed getting this when they were a kid and almost forgot what it was like to eat like this. It was pretty nice, they had to admit. They wondered if they should bring the others here. Papyrus would love some of the noodle options that they had there and Sans could go talk to Grillby. Of course Undyne could come as well. Fish ate other fish, so it wouldn't be too much of a problem. And if it was then she could order something else like a salad or something. Or, in a more likely case, go drink with Sans and Grillby.

"Okay, well." Their mother smiled at Frisk and pulled out her phone. The food was eaten and the food was just taken away by a kind waiter. The waitress had just taken the card to pay for the meal, so it meant another three or so minutes until they were free to leave. Their mother typed away something on their phone before standing and stretching for a second. "I am going to use the little girls' room." Frisk gave her a look and she continued on, almost actually coming across as hurt. "I am coming back! Here, look, take my phone and wait for me, okay?"

Frisk took it and as soon as their mother was out of sight, dropped it on the table in front of them so they wouldn't have to deal with it longer than they had to.

What happened next wasn't what Frisk meant to happen. Their plastic mother hadn't bothered to turn off their phone, leaving the screen on. They were currently texting Pyrope, which made Frisk cringe, and their conversation was still up, revealing everything that they were talking about over dinner. It stabbed Frisk with anger. Even with a restraining order against the two of them, even with him out of the room, she still paid more attention to that man to their own kid?

Frisk rolled their eyes and glared at the name at the top of the screen with a hint of envy.

It was one of those times where you glance at a word and automatically read it. When their eyes rolled over the screen to silently curse at the name of Jerry (of course there would also be a heart and a ring next to it. And, oh, can't forget that kissy face, can we now?), they briefly saw some words fly by and had to stop, pick up the phone and actually read the conversation to make sure it made sense. It couldn't be what they thought it could have been, right?

The texts read as followed.

 _"Jerry, honey, we just finished dinner."_ Their mother.

 _"Are you leaving yet?"_ Fucking Pyrope.

 _"Just leaving to the bathroom now."_

 _"Stay there."_ Did he actually care about her? Huh.

A new one came in as the phone buzzed. It was from everybody's favorite person.

 _Here we go._

Whoa. Frisk's eyebrows bent down in confusion. What did that mean?

Before anything else happened, the sound of something popping exploded out right next to them, outside the window. The sound was indescribably, almost like somebody had popped a glass ball. Frisk, along with the other residents in the eating establishment, turned to the window wall where Frisk was sitting and saw a car go up in flames. It didn't immediately go orange either, like in the movies, at first it was just an explosion of dust and debris, then it scattered and the flames started to sneak their way in. The glass the car had before was now shattered and littered all over the car and pavement, mixing the sounds of glass snapping with the sound of the fire flickering. Soon, the glass wall that they were sat down by displayed a car on fire outside, which was quickly growing brighter and brighter.

Frisk gasped and stood quickly, many people scrambling already for any exit available. Some screams sounded out and Frisk felt one trapped in their throat. As soon as they were out of the booth they were seated in before, their feet became numb and Frisk couldn't help but trip over themselves in a haste to get out. When they turned back around to face the glass wall, they were then hypnotized and weren't able to escape it's gaze. They were trembling, they were aware of that, but weren't able to move much. They sat there, shaking slightly. Unable to move.

It was as if something was holding Frisk there. Like a force that was meant for them, keeping their feet planted to the ground. No matter how loudly Frisk's brain screamed, begged, them to leave, to get their rear into gear, they couldn't move. The orange light was flickering on their face and Frisk couldn't tear their eyes away. Their heart raced, unable to stop the adrenaline coursing through their veins.

More cars had started to go off around the restaurant and the city's official hall building. It was up to about three cars now. People were started to really panic and were seen racing around the parking lot and roads, trying to get away from the danger as fast as possible. Frisk felt their scream still locked in their throat and their throat was starting to contract in fear. This wasn't happening. There was no way that this could have happened. Who would've...Frisk knew no one that was this crazy to do this.

Suddenly another orange light was much, much closer. At first it started slowly, with just the light and the sounds of fire sparking madly back somewhere in their sight, then suddenly it was all around them. This time Frisk did let their scream sound out, but they weren't aware it was theirs until their throat was raw from doing so. Their body was immediately surrounded by the harsh warmth and for a split second, they were scared of the pain that was coming to them. They closed their eyes tightly and hoped that the fire wouldn't burn them too badly. Maybe they would make it past this birthday.

But despite being completely surrounded by the fire and warmth, they weren't hurting in any way. They hesitantly opened their eyes to see their hero and savior that they had previously seen earlier. There stood Grillby, holding Frisk deeply to his chest as he picked the human up like a father would when their child tripped (did he have kids of his own?) and turned around. Some more cars had gone off, these much closer to the glass, and the wall behind them broke and shattered. The explosions weren't entirely like the movies, the force that went out from the explosions were kinda like them, but not in color or fire wise. However, the glass shattering was just like the movies. The explosion had set them back and Grillby and the child were sent to the floor, he shot out his hand the catch them before Frisk had hit the ground with their head. Glass was now sprinkled all over the floor, literally the ground like the stars did in the sky. The orange outside made them sparkle in a special way and Frisk couldn't tear their eyes away from that either.

They were beginning to lose focus on the world around them. All they could really hear was a high pitched sound in the background and couldn't tear their gaze away from the small stars on the ground that were flickering with orange. Their mind went numb too and they weren't able to clearly pull their thoughts together.

Grillby, however, was in full control of the situation. He hissed from the force that sent them tumbling down and dragged his legs back up, tightened his grip on the child and quickly spotted the nearest exit that wasn't currently blocked by flaming cars. As soon as that was accomplished, he sprinted out of the Red Lobster before it became the Orange Lobster.

If anything happened to the child, it would be horrible. Sans had told him that Frisk didn't remember anything from the underground, but memory or not, he wasn't about to let their savior be taken away. As they were sprinting away from the scene, Frisk watched the orange, blinking stars fade out of sight without saying anything, face emotionless.

From that point on, it was hard for Frisk to really tell what was going on. They remember seeing a bunch of bright lights all around them, flashing bright colors. Most likely police and other emergency services around the place. Their, now twelve year old, mind was still in shock. It was hard to tell. They think they were on the road. Frisk thought that they were in Grillby's car. All the knew was that that they were in a car and there was a fire next to them as they flew down the road.

They weren't really aware of anything until they felt fur squeezing them. They blinked. Weren't they just on the road?

They slowly felt the cold pricking at their skin. It was cold. Fur was currently trying to squeeze their eyes out of their socket apparently because, wow, this hug was furocious. The pun rang out automatically in their mind and it helped them see a bit more clearly.

They were standing on their front yard with Toriel practically sobbing into their shoulder. They couldn't see much else besides their mother right then, but the others were probably behind her. Frisk only had to turn their head slightly to the left to see the bright flames that Grillby produced behind them. He was standing next to his car. It seemed a bit familiar, most likely due to the fact of it was the one he just drove them in.

Slowly the pieces fell into place.

Grillby had saved them. Frisk would've died if he hadn't intervened when he had. Even a few more seconds without him and Frisk would've found out what a stunt actor felt like. He had driven them home back to Toriel when he rescued them. Their arm stung a bit, but upon a cursory glance, they saw a bandage put on with skilled practice. They moved a bit more in Toriel's embrace to view him more clearly. It was possible, they supposed, that he wouldn't burn everything he touched. After all, he had a car, a restaurant back underground, and he had clothes on on top of everything. So it would make sense that he was the one who bandaged them up, especially if you take into consideration of the fact that they were still in the yard.

Toriel was still clinging to them. Frisk was now positive that the goat mom was sobbing, based on the wet spot growing on their shoulder where her head was resting, her ear covering half of Frisk's face. Frisk felt a bit of warmth, not the one that would cause them harm, but the warmth that would give them happy memories, grow inside of them when Toriel was hugging them. They slowly wrapped their arms around her

Oh, whoops, she was speaking. Frisk didn't even notice.

"...we could not find you at the school and we thought that you maybe walked home if you missed the bus because you do not have your phone and when we could not find you we began to panic and then we saw the news report and we got so worried and we-we-"

She was gone again, back into hysterics.

Before Frisk could say anything to perhaps help out, Sans came over and placed a bony hand on Toriel's shoulder. "Come on, Tori. Let the kid breathe something that's not hot."

Toriel shot up like a rocket and rounded on the short skeleton. She almost had fire in her eyes and for a second, Frisk was worried that she was going to take off her bracelet to actually use fire, but instead used her words. They didn't know if that was better or worse for Sans.

"How dare you!" Toriel spit. "Why would you try to make a joke out of this? My child almost died tonight and all you can think about it a stupid joke?!"

Sans started to blush and shake his head, hastily backtracking in his steps. "No, of c-course not, Tori. I'm saying that your fur might be a bit much for their lungs," he stole a glance over at Frisk who was watching in awe at how well he was actually doing. "Especially with all that smoke that they might've inhaled."

Toriel softened at that, her eyes going wide again, and began to sob. She held up her hands to cover her face and everybody watched in silence, not entirely sure what to do. Frisk saw Asgore over by the door, hesitating to do anything. Frisk could tell he wanted to comfort his ex-wife, but also knew that Toriel probably wouldn't want his caring touch at that moment.

"Alright, that's enough!" Everybody shot a glance over at Undyne, who was now striding over to Toriel. "A woman needs her privacy, let's not all gawk at her at once, shall we?" Undyne glared at nobody in particular and lead her inside, murmuring comforting words to the queen.

Sans strode himself over to Frisk, who was still standing in the same spot, as everybody else trickled inside the warm house. He was glad that the kid was okay, and felt an immense gratitude towards his hot friend. He turned to Grillby, who was climbing back into his car, with a smile on his face. He seemed to genuinely mean this smile as he nodded at the flame monster and wrapped an arm around his human. "Thanks for saving our lil' buddy, Grillbz."

Grillby nodded and waved to Frisk as he drove away. The two creatures watched after him. Frisk sighed deeply and turned to the skeleton next to them.

"Nice save," they commented gently.

"Heh. I literally pulled that out of nowhere," he laughed. "' was makin' a joke. I called your mom hot and compared the fire to her, ya know?" He looked the side. "But, uh, guess right now isn't the time for jokes." The white pupils that danced solely in the dark circles in his skull focused back on Frisk.

"You okay?"

Frisk nodded.

"Good. Let's go join the others now, huh?"

As he guided Frisk inside nonchalantly, his fist clenched tightly in his jacket pocket.

Inside, Frisk couldn't believe their eyes. There were a few different colors of streamers hung up all around and a banner that was hand written, Frisk recognized Toriel's handwriting, wishing Frisk a happy birthday. A few wrapped presents were on the table, along with a now spoiled birthday cake and pizza.

Frisk turned to Sans with their mouth slightly open. He chuckled and gestured nervously. "We were gonna throw you a party, but couldn't find ya. Where'd you go to anyway?"

Frisk explained it to him and he blinked, eyes growing dark. "I see."

Frisk knew what that meant, having spent the last couple of months with him and his crazy life. "Really, it's not that bad, Sans. I wasn't hurt."

He didn't say anything.

Frisk blinked and looked at the floor. "I didn't get any presents, you know." They carefully ventured. Successfully, he turned his skull to look at Frisk, and despite having no pupils, Frisk knew that he was looking at them. "Did you get me anything?"

He seemed to brighten at that and guided them over to the couch where Alphys was sitting nervously in her seat. "T-the others are trying to calm T-Toriel down." She stammered a lot worse whenever something bad happened and this was no exception.

"Well, guess it's just us then."

Frisk had gotten the handful of presents and dragged them back over to the couch. They needed something good to happen on this birthday and wanted it to be this, if nothing else. At least they were back with those who loved them the most.

Eventually, Toriel and the others had joined Frisk. They re-ordered some pizza and tried to play it all off normally as they could, but everybody was still freaked out from the events the day had and decided it would be best if they had a party again another day. Frisk told them that it wasn't necessary, that they were fine with this, but the monsters insisted. Once again, they proved to be the best family in the world.

That night, Frisk slept uneasily. Under the blankets, it was too hot. They swore that they could hear crackling every time that they closed their eyes and it was getting kinda stuffy in the room. They must have taken a few puffs from their inhaler by now, they had just done so five minutes ago, but it was still too stuffy in the room to do much of anything else. Frisk rolled around with dwindling intentions of sleep. It wasn't going to last much longer.

Then, the child could hear voices outside of their room.

"Should we talk to them about the position tomorrow? We were going to tonight but-" It was Asgore.

"No, no. Give them a few days of rest," Toriel. Definitely. She sounded actually very sincere to the ex-king, which was odd, given their currently relationship. "We can talk to them about it another time. I'm sure being ambassador is something that takes up a lot of time. Finals are soon, let them focus on that before we speak to them."

"I don't think there is going to be a better time if this keeps up," Asgore groans. His voice was starting to get louder."The monsters were blamed for tonight's car accidents. This isn't the first time we have been blamed for something like this. If humans are going to continue to blame us for everything then-."

"Shh!" Toriel snapped. It was a few seconds of silence before she spoke up again. They continued to speak softly until Frisk couldn't hear them anymore. The light went out under their door and Frisk knew that Asgore must've left then. Toriel would want nothing more than to just go to bed now and rest. It has been a long day and Frisk knew that from here on out, it wasn't going to be a fun time anymore with the monsters.

But at the same time, they felt a prick of excitement.

Ambassador? Them!?

How cool would that be? To be the one who bridged humans and monsters together to live in peace? It would take a lot of work, but nobody got famous, or anything done, by doing nothing. Excitement rolled their body upward and they sat in bed, thinking about being an ambassador for a living.

Of course, they would have to have some help. But details would be figured out later. Frisk was going to be ambassador.


	13. The One with Sledding

"No, hold the ramp up a bit more." A skeletal finger pointed at the wooden ramp that was currently being balanced on a few old phone books Frisk had found in the city. "It needs to be elevated a bit more."

Papyrus and Alphys did as commanded and lifted the ramp up a bit more, the wood creaking as it was raised. Alphys sliding another torn up book underneath it to keep it in place.

Sans shook his head as he lifted his protractor to measure the angle. "Now it's too high."

"SANS." Papyrus sighed and turned to his brother with an annoyed expression on his face. "IF WE DO IT WITHOUT THE BOOK, IT IS TOO LOW. IF WE DO IT WITH, IT'S TOO HIGH. WE'VE BEEN AT THIS FOR AT LEAST THREE MINUTES."

"I would say at least four paragraphs," Sans chuckled in agreement. The two looked at each other in confusion before shrugging off his words. Sans would be weird sometimes, this was nothing new.

"Hm...c-could we do it without the book and get a-another?" Alphys asked with physics shining in her eyes. "If we get a book with the right dimensions, preferably with a surface area of two hundred-ninety-two, then we could be able to replace the book with-"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking, Alph." Sans chuckled before she launched into a full explanation. She smiled. "We just don't have any more books." He gestured over to the pile with his arm.

A glance at the vacant pile showed that they were in fact, bookless, and all the ones that they had were currently being used. If they switched out the bigger book for one down lower, it would completely ruin the pile and the monsters would have to start all over. They did the calculations before hand and knew exactly where each book had to be, but the last book they had was the wrong dimensions for what they needed it to be.

"W-well, maybe we could tear it in half?" Alphys turned to look at the skeleton brothers. "That would work. We'd get close enough of the area to be able to substitute it."

"Well, I would, except my muscles aren't what they used to be." Sans's grin widened a bit as the other two groaned and gave him disappointed stares. He flexed one arm for emphasis on it before yawning, and dropping it. He glanced over at the hilltop and saw the two people waiting them to finish, which wasn't going to happen anytime soon. He chuckled again before he laid back on a snow pile and closed his eyes.

It'll happen eventually, he's sure.

Higher up on the hill, waiting on the top for those below to finish, were Undyne and Frisk. They had their sled at their side, just begging to be sat and rode down the hill with. The two watched as their friends worked on the ramp dilemma. It seemed to be almost ready for them to go, but they hadn't gotten the signal from Papyrus yet, so waiting until then it was. The two sighed dramatically, one more than the other. Undyne groaned to herself and checked her phone again, seething at the time.

"What're they waiting for?" Frisk asked and turned to Undyne. She shrugged and looked at Frisk with an unamused expression.

"Probably still calculating book area or some nerd sh-stuff."

"But...it's just a ramp."

"I know!" Undyne barked a laugh. "I told them that it would be better if it were wrong because then we'd be flying through the sky and probably crash land into the snow," she held up her arms and waved them around wildly. "But it's more fun that way. Everybody knows that!"

"Is Alphys telling them all what to do?" Frisk fidgeted, not wanting to accidentally offend their friend. "She doesn't seem like she would lead very well…"

"Nah, probably Sans is. She might help him with the equations though, but he'd probably be faster." Frisk turned to Undyne with a confused expression on their face. "Oh, yeah, Sans is super fuc-freaking smart." She chuckled nervously at her slip up. "He was going to be Royal Scientist before Asgore gave it to Alphys for whatever reason."

Frisk gasped. "No way."

Undyne nodded as she tapped (stomped) her foot on the ground, waiting for them to finish up the ramp. "Yup, I thought he was just a lazy sack of bones. Turns out he's super smart." She turned and punched Frisk in the shoulder with a sharp grin. "Been holdin' out on us!"

Frisk remembered how hard their advanced placement physics homework was and began to wonder if he would be willing to help them with some of the equations with it. The regular classes were able to use a formula chart on their final, but Frisk wasn't on level. They had to memorize all of the equations and they would sometimes confuse where the 'x' was suppose to go, especially when all the other letters were jumbled into it. With a grimace, they tried to block out the final again. Finals were recent and they weren't exactly sure if they did well.

"What is taking them so damn long?!" Undyne growled and threw the sled on the ground, sending a few snow flurries around. Frisk looked back down the hill and saw them still working on the book. Papyrus and Alphys were currently arguing over a book by the looks of it. One monster held one side and were pulling it from the other monster. They were going to rip it in half if they weren't going to get along, which was weird seeing how Papyrus never really argued.

Undyne growled again, this time in more frustration. "Ramp done or not, we're going!"

Before Frisk had the chance to really protest it, Undyne grabbed them, threw them down on the sled and sat behind them. She reached her long legs and arms around Frisk, grabbed the reigns to it and grinned. "Ya ready?"

Frisk didn't have the opportunity to respond that they weren't. Undyne pushed off and they picked up speed almost immediately, sliding down the slippery hill quicker than Frisk would've wanted. The cold air burned against Frisk's bare cheeks and pushed up against their face, making it harder to keep their eyes open. The strong odor of ice and snow assaulted their nose and filled it with it's icy wrath. The colors of the bare trees and the fluffy white snow were hard to keep track of. After all, the sled being driven by an ambitious fish lady hard enough to watch.

Much too quickly for their comfort, the ramp approached them.

They were able to hear some of the shouts from the other monsters who were simply standing where they were, but Frisk couldn't understand what they were actually screeching. It might have been a good thing that they weren't, however, judging by their expressions of fury. By the time that they actually got to the ramp, Sans, Papyrus, and Alphys were yelling at them to stop. Their expressions weren't ones of fury, instead were ones of concern, or in Sans's case, surprise.

Undyne just kept laughing behind Frisk, shouting and whooping cries of excitement. She was used to being a daredevil, after all. But Frisk was barely able to ride on Sans's motorcycle (which Toriel made him sell) when he had it without hiding their face in the skeleton's jacket. This, while it wasn't nearly as dangerous, was still pretty fast in Frisk's book and they began to get worried for themselves.

The wood creaked dangerously underneath them when they got onto it and Frisk had to bite back a scream, both from fear and from excitement, as they were lifted up and launched into the air. It was colder than before up above and Frisk was a bit nervous as the two flew near the tree line. The ramp was to lift them high enough to where the two wouldn't have a problem hitting the trees and would be able to pass through them and land on the other side, where a steeper hill awaited them. Sans and Alphys did all the calculations for it, of course, and were positive that they would be safe.

But they never got the signal that it was. Undyne seemed to realize this as she tightened her grip on Frisk with one arm and kept the other steering the flying sled.

The two flew through the air, both holding their breath as the tree branches came ever closer. Frisk closed their eyes and grit their teeth together, preparing themselves for whatever landing came their way.

The ramp was a bit too low and caused the sled to go about a foot off course, making them hit the top of the trees with a bump and jostled the passengers. They didn't fall off, probably thanks to the fish's tight grip on them, but they did land abruptly below and almost fell off there. If it weren't for the tight grip gravity had on the sled that sent it flying down the hill, Frisk was sure that they wouldn't be on the slick ride.

The hill was a lot steeper than the one they started out with and Frisk couldn't help but shouting out from the adrenaline inside and the scream turned into a laugh as they continued to speed past anybody who was near. The colors this time swirled together into a blur and the snow being in their face was quickly turning into the norm. Frisk continued to laugh, Undyne screeching her own version of yelling behind the human.

Finally, they slowed to a stop at the bottom of the hill. The passengers were still laughing at everything that happened and Frisk couldn't help but cough a bit at the cold air biting at their throat, it tickled way too much. Undyne shoved them lovingly and Frisk turned around and grinned back with glee.

It was a really good ride. It was almost like a rollercoaster on a hill covered with snow and danger. Honestly, Frisk was expecting to hit at least one tree on this ride, not including the ones that they did hit when they were flying. The day turned out to be a really good one, and it got even better when the other three monsters were seen running down the hill to see if they survived. When Sans had slipped on the snow and began to roll down the hill, he hit Alphys, who hit Papyrus, and all three of them turned into a big ball of bones and lizard who rolled together down the slope. Undyne and Frisk laughed like hyenas at the sight of their jumbled together friends.

When they finally stopped rolling around, Papyrus got up and dusted the snow from his battle armor. He turned to the two and asked if "HIS FRIENDS WERE OKAY?" and Undyne couldn't help but throw a snowball at his face instead of answering his question. This sparked a full out war, one that Sans didn't participate in. Or, actually, nobody except Papyrus and Undyne. The other three sat on the sidelines and watched them with contented glee.

The sky was only just beginning to grow dark when a police car showed up onto the scene. The five didn't pay it any attention at first, after all, this was a common place for monsters and humans alike to play on. It was in between the city and the monster village, had great hills, and were great for sledding, which was why it was so busy in the winter. There were hundred of humans and monsters alike, so it wasn't that big of a deal that he showed up. He was probably just making sure everything was going well over here while making his rounds.

But it soon turned into a big deal when the car turned on it's lights, casting blue and red everywhere. The policeman got out of the car and stood by his door with something in his hands. It quickly got many people's' attention and most of everybody stopped what they were doing when he raised a megahorn to his lips to speak clearly for everybody in the park.

"Attention citizens and monsters," his voice was deep. "By the official order of the mayor, all monsters are to report back to their village in no less than twenty minutes." Many monsters began to groan and question this, turning to one another and mumble choice words. The officer continued on, disregarding every questioning word being said towards him. "There is now an official, and legal, curfew. All monsters are to be in their houses and not step out during the dark hours. From seven o'clock pm, or when the sun sets, to seven in the morning, or when the sun rises, none are allowed to be outside." More groans and shouts of disagreement sounded out.

The police officer stopped for a brief second to glare around him before continuing on. "Those who are found outside will be arrested upon sight and will be questioned for their actions. Furthermore-."

The police officer wasn't heard over the roar that erupted from the monsters all around Frisk. Even Alphys was booing, though with less volume than some other monsters. The only one who probably wasn't was Papyrus. He was frowning, but didn't say anything. He just looked downcasted. Frisk felt a bit bad for him, they already felt horrible about what was happening, don't think other wise. But the look on his face was like somebody just crushed his dreams or told him that Santa wasn't real.

"THIS IS BULLSHIT," Undyne screeched and stomped forward a bit, raising a fist, as if waiting for a spear to appear. "BULLSHIIIIIIT!"

Frisk jumped at the sudden volume of their friend and realized that the volume all around them was increasing at a very steep rate. More words like Undyne were using came out from all around them. The cop ducked into his car and began to speak into a walkie talkie. Frisk couldn't really blame him if he were calling for backup, this was a very bad display for the monsters. It was a bit scary, but they couldn't help but feel for the monsters. Their chest grew heavier and they stepped closer to the tall skeleton. They needed to go home before the group got in trouble.

Their gentle human hand reached up and grabbed his hand, which was dangling by his side without any emotion. He looked down at Frisk, who was staring up at him with a worried expression. He looked back at the scene unfolding, with the police officer shouting over the monsters. Humans were starting to leave the park both from fear and from not wanting to be anywhere near the place in case something goes down. The car still flashed blue and red, casting the shared all over the monsters, the snow, and everything else in the park. A few more police cars were starting to join in the scene and he sighed.

He turned back to Frisk and kneeled next to them, casting a small smile on his face. "HUMAN, WHY DON'T WE HEAD HOME? I THINK WE HAVE TO GO SOON ANYWAY." He wrapped his bony arms around them and lifted the child with ease. With one last lingering glance at the scene before them he sighed and turned back to walk home.

Alphys noticed and tugged on Sans's jacket to get his attention. His eyes were void of any color and he did not look like a happy camper in anyway. If it weren't for the magic restrictions against them, the lizard was sure that more monsters would be using their powers right there and then, Sans included. Instead of saying any words to the skeleton, none would probably work in the moment anyway, all she did was point over at Papyrus and Frisk walking away. He got the general idea, shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and began to follow. Undyne was another story.

"You go on ahead," she called after her friends, which made Papyrus and Frisk stop to look over. "W-we'll catch up…."

Frisk sighed deeply, wrecked with emotions in their chest and laid their head down onto his chest as he cradled them tightly in his long arms. Things were getting worse. Somebody had to do something about this and soon, otherwise things were going to escalate. Monsters would listen to Asgore's rule of obeying what the humans wanted, but for how long? Even Asgore was starting to get irritated about what was going on.

They closed their eyes tighter, feeling their eyelids protest weakly, and tried to block out the distant sounds of shouting and the police sirens.

Later that night, when the five of them were over at Frisk and Toriel's drinking hot chocolate and watching movies, trying to forget what happened today. Undyne was furious and had her arms crossed across her chest. She was breathing very ragged and her foot wouldn't stop tapping. Her entire body was tense and wouldn't stop muttering curses under her breath. Alphys was quiet, but had her hand on her girlfriend's lap. Other than that, she just said a comforting word or something to that effect to Undyne, but it was very soft.

Frisk didn't want to ask her if she was alright in case of her snapping out and taking off the bracelet. Alphys was right there to comfort her if she really needed it and the two probably were going to be like that for a while until the morning when they would be able to go home. But if Undyne did snap and take off their bracelet….If a monster were to do so, they would be taken away and Frisk didn't want that for any of the monsters, friends or just acquaintance.

Papyrus was just staring into his cup of hot liquid. He hadn't really taken any sips and the steam had long since gone away from his cup. Frisk wanted to comfort him, but didn't really know what to say when he got like that. Sans was always the best one to cheer up his brother, they were brothers after all and knew each other like the back of their hands, but he wasn't in the best shape either. His eyes never returned back to their white pupils that Frisk always enjoyed, instead remained as black voids. He didn't say anything or really move, but he had his arms crossed and his knuckles seemed to be tight.

The movie played in the background, but nobody was really paying attention to it.

Asgore and Toriel were talking about something in the kitchen when they heard the news about having to stay indoors and had began to talk in very hushed, rushed, voices. They seemed to be even more stressed about something and Asgore looked like he was at the end of his ropes. Frisk wanted to ask what it was about or if they were able to help, but didn't want to pry.

They hadn't felt this useless in a while.

But when Toriel peeked her head into the room and gently asked if Frisk would come over to talk to them, they felt their heart lift a bit. Maybe they'd be able to help them now?

"Frisk," Toriel began gently. "Normally, we would ask you something like this at a more appropriate manner. Perhaps a dinner, or over a snail pie or…" Asgore coughed gently to remind his ex-wife to get back on track. "Right, right. But we are in desperate need for your help." She blinked at her child. "Do you know what an ambassador does?"

Frisk's heart began to pump vigorously in excitement. They grinned and nodded. "They bring two things together without conflict?"

Toriel and Asgore, who looked pretty relieved at Frisk's excitement, smiled at each other. Or, rather, Asgore smiled at Toriel while she glared at him but smiled when she looked back at Frisk. "Almost. They are the figurehead of a group or country they are from. In this case, we, well..."

"We were hoping you wanted to be the ambassador for the monsters." He kneeled down at Frisks's eye level and smiled gently, but Frisk could see the desperate plea he had for the child to say yes. "We really need somebody to start talking for us. One that all monsters trust and somebody that knows both humans and monsters alike." He poked a furry finger at Frisk's chest. "And that would be you."

Frisk's heart wouldn't calm down for anything at that moment. The child was way too excited. This was such an honor, such a change, for the twelve-year-old. Not only were they wanted around and were paid attention to now by those who they loved the most, and now, now they were being asked to be a figurehead for an entire race! They would bring the groups together! Their grin reached their ears and Frisk nodded with determination written clearly on their face.

Asgore smiled a bit more at that and lifted Frisk into the air and swung them around a bit before setting them down after a tight cough from Toriel; but she seemed to be just as pleased as Asgore was. Maybe their situation would ease up a bit with a human speaking for them.

"Now, Frisk," Asgore began. "We need to start working out some things for the two species if we are to exist peacefully together. It won't be an easy feat, but you'll have the entire monster race behind you every step of the way."

"That is right," Toriel stepped in and kneeled beside Frisk. "We can get you new fancy clothes, you can pick them out of course, and we can get you anything you need. Just let us know what you need and we will try to get it." She smiled to herself and pecked Frisk on the head. "My child, the ambassador."

Frisk felt a bit of warmth spread out across their chest as they blushed lightly and beamed, their dimples showing a bit.

"Good, good." Asgore smiled again and pat Frisk on the head. "Now the first thing we have to do is talk to the mayor tomorrow morning. I already set up an appointment and I hear he likes you so we should be good. We need to set up points on how things are getting bad now and what we can do to change it so it's good for both races."

Toriel dug out a notebook and Frisk flipped it open to the first page. At the top of the brand new page they scribbled the title "Points and Suggestions."


	14. The One with the Nonexistant Rhino

Frisk had entered the mayor's office on their own. The lemon scent was strong today, the cleaning crew must have just finished cleaning late last night. The floors were shiny and the windows were clear, they could see many people protesting outside of the office. There was a pretty big group out there, holding picket signs and shouting things. Their incoherent words echoed off the window and Frisk felt their shoulders droop a bit. Somebody was even making anti-monster shirts and handing them out. The shirts had LOHAM symbols on the back in bright red to make everybody see what they were supporting.

Due to fingers pointing at the monsters for recent events, many didn't want the monsters around anymore. More security was beginning to be enforced upon them. The curfew is just the beginning, according to Asgore and Toriel. The two had been a big help so far, but they were monsters and people weren't going to listen to monsters, especially when they're blamed for the actions of other people. After all, anybody can blow something up and blame a group that is already being targeted. A good chunk of the human race didn't want them to be around and this was a great way of getting rid of them.

That's why Frisk was there. They were going to try and mend the problems and bring justice to those who wronged the race of creatures. The mayor already said that he really liked the monsters and they seemed to be great citizens, but with all the protesting and recent events…? Frisk had to make sure he was still on board with them. And if he wasn't, like the curfew was pointing to, the human child was in charge of getting him back.

Frisk was still nervous though. When the group of three had entered, the two Dreemurrs were asked to stay behind in the waiting room. It was expected though, with new security enforced all around the city, and the two monsters peacefully agreed. When they had spotted Frisk's shifted eyes and their feet turning a bit inward, they gave them a warm smile and encouraged them to go on ahead. Not wanting to get this far only to turn around, they nodded and made their way over to the office of Henry Thomas.

After all, it was their first official day of being Ambassador Frisk Dreemurr. They wouldn't let their parents down, let alone a whole race who depended on the child.

The mayor was waiting for them when they had entered his office. He was reading some documents and filling them out with stacks of papers surrounding him like pointed guns. His shoulders were hunched over, back seemed stiff, his eyes were a bit clouded over and dark spots hanging out underneath like hammocks. Frisk couldn't help but notice the slight jump when they knocked gently on the door.

"C-come right on in, Frisk." He shuffled some papers around so he'd be able to see them a bit better. "I was just waitin' for ya. I hear ya're now the monster ambassador. Very important job, that is. And one so young! Colleges will fight like huntin' dogs over ya." His smile gleamed at the young child.

Frisk nodded and tugged at their collar. They weren't wearing a suit nor a dress, and it felt great. Instead of wearing gender-specific clothes, they were able to have a pair of khaki pants with a white polo shirt with a formal jacket on top. Toriel seemed to approve of it and didn't pressure them to go a certain way. She was fine with the outfit that Frisk had chosen themself and had bought them three, price not mattering to their goat mother.

"Please, have a seat." He gestured to the only chair that wasn't bearing the weight of paper mountains. Frisk gladly took the seat and looked around the room to calm themselves. It was alright. Same room. Same interior, just more papers.

"Now. Let's getta business," he gestured over to a water fountain that had snacks next to it. Near the snacks were jugs of sweet and unsweet tea with sugar packets and tea cups. The mayor looked pleased with the little setup. "Would ya like any refreshments durin' the conversation, they are right over yonder."

Frisk nodded and opened their notebook of notes they had taken.

"The monsters don't like what's going on and have sent me to settle the matter." Frisk began their speech that they had went over (about thirty different times in front of the mirror) last night. "They, no, we, are worried that if things are going to continue the way that they are, that all monsters will be nothing more than dirt. It had begun recently with the installment of the curfew." Frisk glanced cursorily back down at their notes before they nervously looked back up at the mayor. He didn't seem mad in anyway, more so resigned and interested in what the child was saying with his hands folded up by his mouth. Frisk liked that, it seemed like he was paying attention.

"We suggest that you take down the curfew and rather than punish the monsters for the actions of the humans, explain to the humans why the monsters are innocent and the victims of the situation-."

"Let me stop you right there, Frisk. Or...er, what is your last name? And your preferred title?"

"Like mister or miss?" He nodded. "Frisk is fine."

"Frisk." He took a deep breath and moved his hands down from his mouth. "Humans are very nervous 'bout the monsters bein' here. We got groups runnin' like headless chickens about it! We didn't even think that they were real and here they are wantin' to move into our city and live like we human folk do."

"Why can't they? The United States allows immigrants move in. And they were technically already here as well, like the Natives. Are we going to let them be destroyed like that solely because they aren't human?"

The mayor narrowed his eyes. "Now if we are goin' to debate them like the Natives, we'll have t' get more specific and go higher up the food chain than just me. We'd go all the way up the ladder, probably to the supreme court if necessary. Do ya want to handle that there or handle it here?"

Frisk narrowed their eyes and gestured for him to continue.

"All righty. So. Folks are already nervous 'bout this and truly believe that them monsters are the ones behind the attacks."

"What motives do they have?"

Mayor Henry Thomas leaned forward, patience wearing thin with the child ambassador. "Frisk, if ya are goin' to be in politics, ya need to learn that this isn't some game ya can play like in the school yard. Ya must be one step ahead of your opponent." Frisk felt their heart starting to beat a bit faster and their stomach drop. They blushed with a bit of embarrassment. "Ya must be in both your shoes 'nd the shoes of the other side at the same time. Folks are concerned that they don't like the treatment that they're receivin' and want revenge. That's why I put the curfew in place so they wouldn't be tempted to do so again."

Frisk wanted to bark out that no, that's not right, that they weren't the ones who did it, but held their tongue. They didn't want to be scolded. The mayor was treated them like the child they were instead of an ambassador. And it was starting to annoy them. If they were going to defend the monsters, they were going to have to be an adult about this. Their childhood and innocence was mostly gone anyway, they were pretty mature anyway.

"Mr. Mayor, I'm sure that you can understand from my point of view that I know that isn't true. I live with the monsters because humans were too cruel for my liking. You saw them yourself abuse for nothing besides the reason of making a scene to get attention for a worthless cause. Monsters are only wanting to be accepted into a society of humans peacefully and wouldn't ever harm. You've taken their magic away and they had done so peacefully. No arguments or resists, only minor complaints."

The mayor nodded. "Yes, I do understand that. Mighty well, if I might add. But the people don't. Ya see, Frisk, the public is in a frenzy. Unofficially, I do agree with ya that monsters aren't the ones behind it. They wouldn't know nothin' about cars, let alone car bombs." He looked to the left and scratched his head. "But officially I have to do what I was elected to do and agree with the views of my people. I cannot help you or the monsters. Not 'til we can find a way to make everythin' alright with both monsters and people alike. And 'til then, they are goin' to be under a curfew."

"Well, if you agree with me, why are you doing nothing?" Frisk looked around, beginning to get both anxious, frustrated, and furious all at the same time. "Why aren't you standing up for them? We can find a solution now if you just help me!"

"'Cause Frisk I am the elected mayor of this city and I have to represent what the people are wantin'!" He stood up, sending a few papers to the floor. "I'd love to help ya, really, I would." He held up a curtain, revealing the protestors. "But I can't."

He turned to Frisk with apologetic eyes that begged for forgiveness. "I truly am sorry, young Frisk. I'm torn like the country once was."

Frisk stood and inhaled sharply, trying desperately to control their frustration. "Yeah. Just like the country was. Y'know, I bet that if some different steps were taken there wouldn't have been war or racism." They turned and began to walk out of the office but stopped. "Or any steps in your case."

When Frisk met up with their goat friends, they delivered the bad news of what had happened. Toriel sighed heavily and turned towards the window, watching the angry supports shout. Asgore took a deep breath and kneeled down next to the human. "Well, my young ambassador, these things sometimes happen. Every now and then you might be faced with a leader who doesn't want to pick a side. But when they do we must take pity on them because they are confused." He gently laid a massive hand on Frisk's shoulder and smiled warmly. "We must take care of our confused friend."

"But he isn't helping us." Frisk reminded him with a pout on their face. "Why should we help him?"

"Because that is what is right, dear one. We must always help those who need it, friend or enemy. Sometimes those who cannot see clearly are confused and we must show them what is right." His reassuring eyes brought comfort to Frisk. Their shoulders seemed to relax a bit under their gaze and they sighed peacefully.

"Excuse me, I hate to interrupt the moment," an officer approached and set his hands on his hips as he watched the monsters and the human child. He didn't seem very sorry at all. "But Mayor Thomas has requested that you all leave." When they didn't move and turned to him with slight annoyance on their faces, he barked out that they must leave now or else they would be charged with trespassing. That got the monsters to move, but Frisk lingered.

"Did you not hear me? I said that you need to leave the premises!" The officer took a few steps forward as if to threaten Frisk. Frisk looked down and shifted a bit, but didn't leave the spot.

Before the officer could do anything, a fluffy arm snaked their way around Frisk and guided them away. When the child looked up, they saw Asgore guiding them away with an expression they couldn't read. He looked worried but in control at the same time.

"Come, my child. We must lead by example and show them peace." Toriel put her hand on Frisk's other shoulder and the two monsters guided them out of the hallway to the gigantic doors that would lead them outside. Frisk followed their parents' guide and tried to ignore the immense sounds of protest coming from the LOHAM supporters. Their yells and shouts rose in volume when they saw the pair.

Frisk closed their eyes and continued the saying in their head.

 _Lead by example and show them peace. Lead by example and show them peace._

"You will always have those who do not support your actions or decisions." Toriel sighed and tightened her grip on Frisk's shoulders. Frisk looked up at her while trying to fight off the tears of frustration that began to form. Today was far from fair and Frisk really did not want to hear about what other people thought at the moment. "But," Toriel (being the mother and mind reader that she was) pointed over to another group not too far from the City Hall, right across the street. They were wearing all blue shirts and white writing was on the back. While it was too far away to see what the words were spelling out, the group of humans cheered when they saw Frisk.

"You will always have some that support you."

Frisk opened their mouth wordlessly in a surprised and excited manner. The group was even larger than the LOHAM supporters! Almost tripled in numbers. They hadn't been aware that anybody was supporting them at all, let alone an entire group of people! Frisk turned to their mother with a grin appearing on their face. Toriel turned to the child and seemed to be sharing their excitement. When Frisk turned back to the to the group, a few monsters were there as well, dressed up in blue. Both species were together, supporting something that they believed in, together. It was exactly what Frisk had wanted from the very beginning! They desperately wanted to go run over to the group and hug each and every one of them individually until they understood just how welcomed their support was.

Instead, Frisk walked behind the two royal monsters and waved enthusiastically to the blue group, who clapped and cheered louder than before. Frisk seemed to bristle and eat up the energy, frustration already forgotten at the sight. Now, their face only showed the emotion of pride and belonging and it was great. Pretty damn great. The echos of hate that came from LOHAM were now behind Frisk. Briefly for a moment, Frisk thought bitterly of Pyrope and chuckled to themselves.

Guess they had support of their own now.

By the time that the rest of the world was covered by the dark sky, the monsters were inside their houses and were obeying the curfew law, despite being a few miles away from the city. Police still patrolled through their neighborhoods, but that was fine. They went away by nine o'clock each night and didn't come back until about four or five when people began to rise to get to work. They were just itching to get somebody, but nobody was caught yet. Monsters actually obeyed the law.

Most of the group had begun to sleepover at Toriel's for comfort and safety. It was starting to be harder for everybody to actually sleep on their own in these times. With the unpredictability of the humans, it was just easier for everybody to sleep in numbers in case something actually happened. Nothing had even hinted at it, but that was okay. Besides, it was much more fun to have a sleepover every night where they could watch anime and play games!

This night, however, Frisk did not feel safe. They were feeling off by the time that their bedtime rolled around and it only intensified each passing minute. Eventually the child had fallen asleep, if only by the pure exhaustion their body was rolling off in waves, but it was still a very light sleep. They felt their body toss and turn in an adventure to find a comfortable position. Their heart was racing and their sheets were eating them alive in a thick, hot, mouth, Frisk could swear to it.

And then, by pure chance, it was all over.

Frisk was awaked by ...something. They couldn't really say what exactly it was, but it was scary. It was as thought that something, or somebody, had gone up to them and raked their cold hands down their spine. It made the kid shiver from fear. The sweat and the panting that their body was showing was only by sight and hearing. Frisk felt only the cold, nothing else. They didn't feel the water on their forehead, nor the shivering their fingers were doing. They were freaked out.

The only real thing they could remember from their corrupted slumber were the words "the war starts."

 _SNAP!_

Frisk whipped their head over to the window. It overlooked the forest that started in their backyard and was all but inviting in the blue moonlight that casted over the trees. It gave a pretty good view of a meadow not too far from their house. If there was enough space for an animal to roam around and do whatever it pleased, it would be that meadow. Like a child, Frisk was hesitant to get out of bed to investigate what had made the sound that resent their heart into a frenzy. They could almost laugh, they were scared of a monster reaching out and grabbing them. And there they were fighting _for_ the monster race. Besides, all the monsters were downstairs.

Nothing would hurt them by their window, right?

Trying to push down the irrational fear inside of them, they clambered out of bed and quietly walked over to the glass square. Frisk's eyes casted a scrutinizing search for an animal of some sort. It had to match the volume of the sound to the size of the animal. Thinking rationally, of course, the child began to search for a bear, or perhaps a rhinoceros. Maybe it was a landshark. The moon gave them enough light to look around, but identifying shapes would be far from possible in that light. The only clear shapes they were able to make out were the tree branches and an object flying.

Wait...what?

Frisk only saw a bright blue light deeper in the woods when they tried to follow the flying object. It glowed brightly, almost as bright as fire, but disappeared with another snap that sent Frisk stepping back from the window.

Oh, Frisk had to see this.

They raced down the stairs and out the door, running out into the woods, not caring about the amount of sound they made. Screw caution! This was exciting! Frisk nearly stopped and took a second to cough slightly when they got outside. They didn't even think of the cold air that assaulted their skin and lungs. Where was their inhaler? Frisk didn't really care at the moment. Their childish instincts were kicking in and they just wanted to see what it was then they could go back for their inhaler if they still wanted it.

So off they ran into the woods.

The woods were normally very quiet, especially during the day when most of the occupants were either asleep or hiding from Frisk the human. However, night time was their time to screech as loudly as they wanted without fear of being discovered by anything that wasn't a predator. Bugs took full advantage of that and would scream as they flew, dug, crawled, or simply stood there. Any animal that wasn't scared of it's shadow would occasionally do the same, but most of the time would simply enjoy the night's darkened lighting.

However, during the glowing rhino's rampage through the forest, the animals were silent. Not even the screaming of the bugs were heard. It added to the creep factor, but Frisk was now determined to find out what exactly the rhino was doing way out here. After all, the bugs were only silent when there was something to hide from.

The meadow up ahead was overlooked by the house. Every now and then Frisk could go out on their roof (when Toriel wasn't home of course) and watch a herd of deer eat the grass and berries found in the grassy area. It had a few baby trees next to a bunch of older, rotting, logs. There was a fire not too long ago, maybe fifty years or so, that turned the entire forest to ash. Now things were growing again and animals were returning. Plus, when the monsters found out, they used what magic they could before they were restricted to help out the forest, making plants and other objects grow much faster.

Because of the wide open area, Frisk and the others would occasionally come down for a picnic or to play a quick sport. Most of the time, Frisk would play goalie or would keep score of the monsters. While they loved playing games, they were much smaller than the others and wouldn't be able to keep up. Besides, they were still getting used to the feeling of running and controlling their breathing while doing so.

So of course, when Frisk set foot into the meadow, they were surprised to find not a rhino, but a familiar skeleton.

Sans had his back to Frisk about twenty or so feet away and held up his hand. It swirled with blue light and a huge tree log across the field was lifted up. It too, was surrounded by the blue light. With a grunt, Sans threw his arm to the side and the tree followed suit. It flew over across the field and snapped in half against another tree. A loud snap shrieked from the actions and Frisk had to focus on not flinching.

They forced their eyes to refocus on the skeleton in front of them. He seemed to be in a zone or world entirely of his own and didn't really register that Frisk was behind him, which was odd. He was normally so aware of what was going on around him. It was almost spooky how attuned he was to the world. More than once he had come to Frisk's rescue of some sort, whether it be by being short on money at the store, or when a bully was about to push them down. He was great.

But the blue flame coming from the side of his skull was almost scary and sent chills down their back. It sent a very alarming message to the neurons in Frisk's muscles. They all began to scream to run, to get away. This wasn't good, this was bad, this was a very bad time and they should leave. Had they seen this before? While Frisk was sure that they had seen this before, they were also very sure that they hadn't ever seen something like this. How could they?

Monsters were not allowed to use their powers at all.

Frisk stopped in their thoughts. Was this Sans's magic? Was this his power? They had to know.

"Sans?" Frisk reached out slowly with their hand.

He whipped around with a gasp and the blue magic disappeared entirely, yet when he turned around he made Frisk gasp and back up several steps. His eye was glowing, no. It was alight with electric blue fire that sent Frisk back. His other eye was gone completely. The pupil was just gone. The one that was currently on fire searched Frisk up and down silently.

His grin was forced.

"Frisk." He shoved his hands into his jacket's pocket and seemed too stiff to be naturally nonchalant. "Whaddya doin' out here, kiddo?"

Frisk swallowed their fear and looked over to where the smashed logs were and raised a pointed hand over to the pile of wood shards. His gaze followed and he sighed. "Oh, the sound woke you up?" At their nods, he sighed and turned back to them. His eyes was still very much blue and Frisk was wondering if he was able to hear their heart. "I shoulda guessed it would've done that. I'm sorry, kid. Want me to take you back?"

Frisk didn't respond. They glanced back over at the pile and licked their lips nervously.

His hand outstretched to grab theirs, but they wouldn't let him take it. It wasn't because they were scared (though they were), it was because they desperately needed to know what exactly he was doing out here.

He must've guessed this because he let his arm go limp and they watched as it hung loosely by his side. Sans must have also noticed them shivering, due to the cold and a slight amount of fear, because he went up to them and shrugged out of his jacket. "Kid, you must be crazy if you're out here like that." He wrapped it around their shoulders and looked at them in the eyes. He could see the slight fear that they had and the reflection of his magic in their eyes. "You okay?"

They nodded, but he didn't really seem convinced.

Frisk looked down at their feet, trying not to let him see how scared they just were when they saw his bare wrist. Now, Frisk was used to seeing bones by this points. It was just how it was. Two of their best friends were skeletons and they had, of course, bones for limbs. But what they weren't used to was the sight of both of his wrists bare. There was no magic restricting bracelet on him at all. It was suppose to be impossible to take off.

Frisk felt their face scrunch up in confusion and they knew that he was able to see their expression now, but he didn't say anything. "Wh-what were you doing out here, Sans?"

He shrugged.

"Where's your bracelet?"

He shrugged.

Frisk searched the ground, as if looking for another question to ask. They couldn't think of any good ones but spoke before they could think it through before asking it.

"Why am I scared?"

Sans's feet stepped a few feet towards them and when they looked up, he wasn't grinning. He seemed tired, almost exhausted. He didn't move or say anything besides that.

The two stared at each other for a minute.

"You remember when I found you the night you first met Papyrus? When your folks left you at the restaurant?" Sans spoke softly, whispering his question as if he was scared of other people hearing it. Frisk nodded numbly, attached to each word he said. "And I had my eye alight like this?"

Oh. Frisk almost forgot entirely about that. Yeah, they did remember it vaguely. They remembered how Sans had yelled at them for hurting him before, coming back, not remembering it, and torturing him. He had grabbed ahold of their soul when they tried to run away and then threw them across the road. But when he was crying about it, Frisk had come back to him and tried to comfort him.

It felt like a lifetime ago to the child.

"I had taken off my bracelet then to use my magic." The blue left his eye and he looked at the ground with despair. "I shouldn't have and I endangered you. You could've…." He took a deep breath. "But when I said that you hurt me...I had used my magic on you before. That's why you're scared of it now."

He began to shake and was looking for something to say. "I can't tell you how sorry I am, Frisk, you really shouldn't be near me right now. If I hurt you again, then it'll be my fault and I-."

"Stop." Frisk grabbed his hand and smiled lightly. His look basically was the exact one a kicked puppy would have and Frisk couldn't help but smile softly. "I already forgave you." Before he could continue on in his self-pity, they hurried to change the subject. "I wanna know how you got it off."

He shrugged, clearly confused. "It's easy. You just have to plug in a few numbers on the computer to create a hack then you input it into the bracelet and then you take out the screws." His eyes never left the child. "Don't go telling other people that, they might take off theirs and do something stupid."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he gestured to the pile of wood. "When monsters don't use their magic for a really long time it basically will use itself. It's like going to the bathroom. If you do it a lot then you won't have an accident." He chuckled. "Not that I know what that's like, but I can't think of anything else you'd understand, kid." Frisk smiled at his comparison. "That's why I take mine off. So that way when we're all freed, I won't accidentally hurt anybody."

Frisk nodded. It actually made a ton of sense. Except for….

"Wait, you knew how to get it off?"

He shrugged and his grin was growing on his face. "I know a few tricks."

"You're brilliant Sans!" Frisk smiled and looked at his wrist that the restrictor was on. "That's gotta be some math."

He grinned and looked a bit bashful. "Heh. Maybe. Math is pretty simple to me."

Frisk looked back up at him and back behind him to the pile. "Can you show me?"

"What math? I thought you finished your homework for the weekend-."

"No," Frisk grabbed his arm and ran in front of him, dragging him forward. "I mean the magic!"

He shrugged. "I guess. Just don't tell Tori."

As his eye began to glow blue, he turned to Frisk one more time before picking out a log. "I haven't seen you this excited in a long, long time, kiddo."

Frisk just shrugged in his jacket with their hands shoved into the pockets.

As he turned back and picked up a log, feeling his magic rush into his hands, he remembered the same expression they were giving him. It was a different life. It had been the first time he showed it to them when he wasn't trying to kill them. Yeah, it had been a while. They were so excited about it that he had sent them flying around just for a minute so they were able to see what it was like. This kid was going to kill him, he was sure. (The question was if it would be in a literal term or not.) But he would do almost anything for them until then and he'd continue to make jokes for them as long as he was breathing figuratively. Besides, he had been saved by them before and he was sure that he would be saved by them again.

The kid was pretty alright, anyway. They were a hell of a human at least.

* * *

 **Hey y'all :D Hope this is a good chapter after that brief pause.**

 **I actually have gotten some (AMAZING) fanart sent in to me and I wanted to share it with yall. Thanks to FF's fantastic link system going on here, I can't straight up give you the link. But it's my tumblr, which is .com. Then it's /tagged/fanart/ after that. Hopefully that works, and if not, lemme know and I'll try something else.**

 **Til next time :P**


	15. The One with Changes

It's been months since Frisk had found Sans in the woods using his powers. The air had turned crisp and began to smell of fires and pumpkins, bright fiery colors had began to overtake the trees only to send them tumbling into the wind as the season once again began to turn cold. The daily walks that Fisk would normally take throughout the monster village were no longer accompanied by silence, instead the _crunch_ of the leaves were their new companion. Jackets were starting to be sold with humans and monsters alike scrambled to get them before the bitter stinging of the air got too bad to deal with. Kids everywhere began to anticipate the upcoming holidays and most monsters, once explained to what the holidays were, were also beginning to be antsy to celebrate.

A lot of things were starting to get exciting, in fact.

During the months, Frisk was able to persuade the mayor to take down the curfew for the monster race. Monsters no longer had to cower in their houses during the night hours, but could now enjoy both day and night. They were allowed to go out into the city even, and Sans was probably the one who most enjoyed this. He had gotten a job at a local comedy club/bar (where Grillby now worked and helped him get the job) and would return back home very early in the morning. It had helped bring in the way too, which he spent on many things. Ranging from jokes and pranks to actually needed things, Sans was now working at a job that he actually liked. Papyrus couldn't have been prouder.

Not only that, but the human ambassador had been invited to talk to THE President of the United States. (Just when they began to think that they were doing a bad job at the ambassador job, after all, it had taken a pretty long ass time just to get that curfew taken down. Despite their family's constant reassurance they were doing a fine job, especially one for somebody their age, they had their doubts. But the look on their face when they got the call that President Coltran wanted to talk to them? Indescribable happiness.) That had certainly caused heads to turn. A lot of turned heads. More so of the press. Aaaand of course, the public. Everybody who lived on the surface had wanted to know what exactly he was going to talk to Frisk, a kid who came from nowhere, about something that could change everything in the world. Frisk, of course, did want to know as well, but it all turned out okay.

Because the monsters had begun to expand to other areas in the city, more laws became questionable. Could they have jobs? What about taxes? Would they be taxed the same? So, it began to climb a ladder that would eventually lead to the big cheese himself. So, he of course became interested. President Coltran turns out was a very understanding man. Turns out that he supported the monsters just as much as Frisk did now. The deal that they made, considered the past events and drama that occurred before, was very simple. Even Asgore couldn't have made it any better.

So long as monsters didn't harm humans or break any laws, they were to be seen as equal as they could be.

Months later, the monsters were enjoying life. Nothing could go wrong. In fact, this was probably one of the best things that the new changes had brought. Thanks to the generosity of the man, the races were slowly beginning to be brought together.

Of course, some people were not happy about this decision to let the monsters off the hook. They were still worried that the monsters would strike out, turn a new leaf, or show them the real reason why they were locked away in the first place (according to a few classmates of Frisk). The ambassador tried their best to ignore all of these comments, but at the same time they had no other option to listen. They needed to listen to these complaints about the monsters and try to reason with whoever made the nasty remarks.

It was taxing on adults. If you compare before and after pictures of presidents, the change is not an envious one. They seemed to be so much more tired all of the time, unable to catch a moment of peace. Despite the title of "the leader of the free world," they were probably the most unfree you could get in America. Having to deal with everything and everyone, the President could count himself lucky if he got a two minute break in the morning to himself. Coltran himself had gone bald since he joined and had gained a ton of stress marks. Frisk was quickly beginning to understand that feeling, as they soon looked like they hadn't had a proper goodnight's sleep in months.

Well….if they were honest, it wouldn't be months. It'd be weeks.

Every night that they tried to sleep, they began to have those vivid dreams again. The field wasn't the only thing that they saw anymore, instead more areas appeared. For instance, they were underground again. There was a weird flower that would talk to them in a creepy ass tone and would taunt them, calling them an idiot. He scared Frisk, but not as much as some of the other scenes. In some, they were carrying a knife and running like something was chasing after them. The knife wasn't clean either. It seemed to have a ton of dirt on it, like they were stabbing a pile of dusty practice dummies and forgotten to clean off the blade.

The more recent ones were starting to mess with Frisk in the real world.

Lately, the child would dream like they were actually in the world. As if they had somehow stepped into the world of their dreams and was the one in control. They had all five of their senses, and one extra of a foreboding. Of what? They weren't sure. The most that they were able to remember in the morning was the face of them...but it wasn't _them._ It was somebody else. They would walk up to a mirror in the "dream world" and would blink at the child in front of them. They had dust all over their body and their eyes seemed to glow a different, more blood toned, color. They would smile mischievously and chide that they were the same.

Frisk would wake up in a daze, sweating, and shivering.

Toriel apparently began to notice. Frisk knew immediately when they saw the look Toriel gave them after they broke a plate from jumping when they saw a reflection of themselves in the window. She came running into the kitchen after hearing their scream, but only helped them clean up the plate's remains. No questions were asked. Looks given, of course, but no questioning words were given. Frisk was all but glad. It only meant that Toriel had the answers to the painful unasked questions.

"Frisk," Toriel called. Frisk looked up from their documents of official duties. They were currently trying to finish so they could take a hot shower. (Maybe that could help relax their muscles?) "My child, you have done so much lately. Why not go and take a few of your friends to Sans's show tonight?"

Oh. Oh right.

Sans was indeed performing that night. It was suppose to be a big one at that. Apparently his talent had spread and a few people were wanting to have him at their club or whatever so a few job recruiters were coming to watch him perform. Frisk had only been to see him actually be up at the stand a few times, both because it was usually super late when he went on and because it was a bar, he drank a bit before going up, and Frisk was still only about twelve. But whenever they did go, it was a blast. Even living with the skeleton for the amount of time that they did, it was still fun.

But still...the paperwork would be there when they came back, probably too tired to even read the documents. They'd be behind for tomorrow and-

"Oh, no. None of that," Toriel bent down and swept all of the papers into her arms. They were great for hugging not paperwork. Frisk frowned a bit. "You need not worry, I shall take care of these. You have been working hard enough as is, you do not need to do these. Besides, you are long overdue for a day off."

"You sure?" Frisk trailed after her. "I don't wanna make you do all of it."

"Of course, young one. Go. Sans will be here in a bit to pick you up." She turned and winked at their child, implying that they had already set this up so there wasn't any way that they'd be able to back out. They turned back and placed the paper stack on her office desk when two small arms reached and wrapped themselves around her waist.

Toriel smiled to herself, bent down and hugged Frisk back. "Thank you, so so much." Frisk smiled at their mom and continued to hug her for a second before they sang three words to her before dashing off upstairs to go change.

The goat women merrily laughed back and shouted that she loved them too.

 **So this is only a preview for the next chapter. It's about a third of it. I wanted to upload this tonight so y'all would actually know that this was, indeed, still going. I'll upload the full chapter either tomorrow or the day after. Thanks for being patient, despite the probable groans of the delay and impatience ;P**


	16. The One where Things go to Shitsville

The bar that night was packed. More so than expected, according to Sans. He had picked up Frisk earlier, saying that Papyrus and Undyne were already there, holding a table for them. There had to be about twenty or so tables, each ranging in amount of seats. Some supporting up to ten or so chairs for the extra large groups that came in, others holding two to four depending on size, shape, or just the general direction of the table itself. They all were surrounding a small stage with steps leading up onto it. Just for shits and giggles, there was a big red curtain placed above it to give it a theatrical look. There wasn't even a backstage or anything, just the wall.

Behind all of the tables was a bar with hundreds of glimmering glass bottles that held various colors of drinks. Some of them fascinated Frisk, but they'd have to wait. (They could always ask Undyne to try them, having been offered to be a taste tester before, but whenever Undyne got drunk or tipsy, she'd become even more violent than before. Not only that, but she would be a lot more clumsier. It's actually a lot more funnier than it sounds.) The bar held stools that reached up to the bar itself, allowing those with longer legs a chance to experience what it was like to have their legs dangling down, not being able to touch the ground. Frisk really liked how classy and sharp everything looked there, especially when Grillby was working. The flames would flicker around to cast lights and turn the glass around him a bright color. It was entrancing, even to a child, and many adults who may or may not have a bit too much to drink would stare at him. He said he was used to it by that point though, so Frisk didn't have much trouble not worrying over him.

They had become a bit closer since the event that took place months ago. Sans had brought the kid to thank him for his deeds and pay his tab, but Grillby denied what little money Sans at that point. He told Frisk that they could pay off his tab by bringing peace to the races. A bit cheesy, but it was a challenge accepted. Besides, seeing his flames reflected off the glass bottle wall behind him filled the kid with determination to finish their job.

To this day, Frisk would wave and chat with Grillby when he wasn't too busy. He didn't really say much, but it was still nice to talk to him. He was a great listener and supported Frisk in many ways that nobody else could. He knew that Frisk was trying very hard, he knew that their favorite burger was one with cheese and ketchup only. He even knew that Frisk was insecure about their ambassador job, though they never told him that, and he would flash them a thumbs up across the restaurant when a newscast about current events would broadcast.

In other words, Grillby was a good friend of Frisk's.

Every table was full when the child and the skeleton walked into the bar. Though Frisk was still way too young to even sit at the bar without supervision, it was one of Frisk's favorite places to eat. And despite being there at least once a week to devour food, they had never seen it so busy. People were even standing against the walls to have a spot to see Sans's performance. The air was thick with the scent of alcohol and smoke, but Frisk didn't mind much. Just keep drinking water and sit away from other people towards the front of the stage and they should be fine.

Frisk tugged on his jacket sleeve to get his attention. He had sweat starting to build up on the side of his skull and his smile seemed to be too straight. He looked as if somebody was coercing him to take a family photo next to a relative that didn't know what deodorant was.

"yeah, kid?"

"It's busy."

"yeah."

That's all that was said. The two paused to look around the room and try not to shy away from the amount of people. They didn't speak or move at all for a full minute until he took a deep breath, spooking Frisk. He chuckled a bit, both from nerves and scaring them. "im gonna go get a drink. go find pap 'n undyne, okay?"

Frisk nodded and shuffled away to look around. Most of the customers in there were in their early to mid adulthood. All of them were taller, some even while sitting. Nothing better to try and find two people in a crowd that all were drinking and talking very loudly. Frisk had scouted out most of the place at this points and still couldn't find the two. That is, until Undyne had found them and began waving and yelling that they were "OVER HERE, PUNK!"

Most people looked, but that was okay. Frisk was used to being gawked at for hanging out with only monsters, that, or, ya know, for being the ambassadors for said monsters.

Seeing that neither of the skeleton brothers were sitting at the table, Frisk let them have their own side of the table. They liked sitting next to each other when they could. So, Frisk sat down next to Undyne, who wrapped her arm around them and squeezed them tightly. "I haven't seen you in AGES, bestie! How've ya been?"

Frisk held up their hand and tilted it from side to side in a so-so type of way.

"The stress still gettin' to ya?" Frisk nodded. "You should really take it easier, kid." Undyne's scaly face turned into one of some concern. A rare face for the warrior. "You should probably get a way to get your stress out. My personal favorite is, of course, fighting and training for the fights!" The arm not around Frisk shot up and flexed. "Check it out! And I'm not even stressed!"

Frisk smiled a bit. It was pretty damn nice after all. Undyne was definitely toned and she DID have a pretty healthy way of handling her stress.

It was at that point that Sans and Papyrus returned, Sans carrying a glass full to the rim with alcohol. Frisk didn't really know what the different types were, but it sure smelled strongly. Papyrus was currently scolding him for "BEING SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE ON FRISK!" but Frisk was fine with it. They've seen people drinking around them and this was nothing compared to that. Besides, Sans only drank when he was either nervous or about to perform. Most of the time he was too lazy to get nervous over stuff, especially now that things were a lot calmed down.

"HUMAN, I AM SO SORRY YOU MUST WITNESS THIS DISGRACE OF A BROTHER. HE MEANS WELL, I PROMISE YOU, BUT HE ER...NEEDS DIFFERENT MILK THAN HUMANS AND THIS IS HIS MILK-"

Sans shook his head at the silly lie that Papyrus was producing and turned to the kid in question. "you don't mind me drinkin' a bit before the show, do ya?"

Frisk shook their head and laughed a bit at Papyrus, who was still trying to convince them that this was milk. "I think Sans is a good brother." They said, cutting Papyrus off in his milk rant.

"OF COURSE HE IS, PLEASE DON'T THINK OTHERWISE, BUT HE IS DOING SOMETHING BAD AND-"

"Pap, it's fine," Frisk laughed a bit. "I don't care if he drinks. I don't want to when I get older anyway." They shrugged. They were allowed sips before and didn't like the taste of it. It burned their throat on the way down and Frisk had to drink a ton of juice to get rid of the burning sensation.

"OH. WELL." He glanced around the room. "THAT'S OKAY, THEN, I SUPPOSE."

Frisk smiled gently at him and nodded. They began to talk about what Sans was going to do that night for his skit. He hadn't really thought of anything, just brief plans that he thought of. "'s better not to plan out what you're gonna say word for word," he explained when Frisk questioned that method. "if ya get nervous or forget a word, you'll stutter and lose track of where you're at. tripping over words isn't what i have in mind for tonight, kid."

Sans had drank the entire jug of alcohol he got, which turned out to be just regular beer with a few monster ingredients to make it better (courtesy of Grillby), just in time for his act. From the time he had arrived to the time he left the table for the performance, he was nervous. He was scared and he didn't look like he was going to have a good time up there at all. Frisk swore up and down that they saw his bones rattling together in a shaking sort of way.

"Why's Sans so nervous? I've seen him perform all day underground," the fish lady spoke quietly to Papyrus. "He was just fine there."

"I THINK HE'S JUST NERVOUS ABOUT SO MANY HUMANS HERE. IT IS INTIMIDATING SOMETIMES TO BE IN THEIR PRESENCE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE'S SO MANY. SOMETIMES I WORRY MYSELF THAT I'LL BE SWARMED WITH FANS IF THEY RECOGNIZE ME!" The tall skeleton chuckled to himself and pulled out his phone. He swiftly pulled up a picture he uploaded onto his blog and passed it around to show the two others. It was a picture of him in a fake, bushy mustache. "I EVEN BOUGHT A DISGUISE! NOBODY WILL KNOW UNLESS THEY FOLLOW ME!"

The picture had four likes. Papyrus went on to describe ways to feel less anxious around humans, most of them silly methods, but Frisk found themselves enjoying every word of it. It'd been awhile since they were able to hang out like this with their friends and felt gratitude towards Toriel. Frisk might not have wanted to come and miss working on their papers, but Toriel, like always, knew what was best for the human child.

And they did indeed promise Papyrus that they would try a few of his strategies at their next meeting. He apologized that he wasn't able to get them to the child before meeting the big cheese, but Frisk assured him that it was alright. Everything had turned out alright anyway.

Sans's performance began soon after. It took a moment to silence the crowd, but once it was silent, the short skeleton walked up to the microphone and worked silently for a second to lower it to his height. He tapped the mic to make sure that it was indeed working, cleared his nonexistent throat, and smiled.

"how did the skeleton know what the weather was going to be?" His eyes scanned through the crowd, hoping for a volunteer. At first nobody raised their hand or spoke out. Frisk was starting to worry that nobody was going to say anything and could tell that Sans was starting to think that as well. Across the room, dressed in very fancy suits, were the employers. They were recruiting and Frisk knew that every second counted for Sans. They were about to ask how when an arm shot up in front of their table. Somebody, very tipsy at that, continued to hold their hand up in the air and stood up.

Sans just shrugged and went with it. Alright, that's cool. He wouldn't have to choose. "whatcha got?"

"T-They felt it in their BONES!" The person chuckled to themselves and sat back down, beating the table.

Sans scowled and shook his head. "no, numbskull, he checked the weather report." He said it in a way that was both nice and funny.

It earned a few chuckled from around the room. Only a few people didn't laugh at that particular one, but within the hour, everybody was cackling like hyenas. Sans kept going, joke after joke, making everybody smile. Frisk kept glancing over at the business men, and they seemed to be enjoying it. Their red faces really spoke volumes about his talent, sending relief and a hint of pride to the human. Their skeleton friend really was the best.

Frisk continued to glance around the room but stopped suddenly with dread clenched around their heart. Their heart hammered inside their ribs. They spotted somebody that they didn't think they'd see outside of their nightmares. In the corner, near the stage, was the person who looked like them, the other Frisk. Their red eyes gleamed and in the lighting they were in, they seemed to sparkle. Frisk realized with a shudder that they were almost blood red. Human blood red. Frisk's throat tightened uncomfortably to the point they felt like they weren't able to breathe properly.

Other Frisk smiled at them, showing off their teeth. They mouthed something across the restaurant, making the child wish that they didn't have the ability to read lips. They weren't able to hear them over the noise, but by reading they were able to clearly get the message across.

" _I told you to beware."_

Frisk almost screamed when a hand was placed on their shoulder. With fear and adrenaline racing through their mind they weren't able to think clearly nor register the fact that the hand was a familiar bony one. They jumped, snapped their head towards the person who owned the hand, grabbing it in a death grip, and froze. Papyrus and Undyne were watching the child with concern in their eyes. The rest of the room laughed on about whatever Sans just joked about, but the other two seemed focused on Frisk.

"FRISK?"

"Are you okay, dude? You look really worried about something."

"Don't you see them," Frisk questioned and raised their hand, pointing to the corner, still looking at the other two. "They're right there! They looked like me, but-"

"Uh, Frisk. There's nobody there." Undyne turned to them and narrowed her good eye. Before chuckling. "Are you trying to prank us? Is this something Sans put you up to?"

"THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING MY BROTHER WOULD DO! A PRANK WITHIN HIS OWN PERFORMANCE, WHAT AN IDEA!"

Frisk looked back at the corner, not bothering to answer their friends. The other Frisk was gone, red eyes and all, but Frisk still shivered. Something about them...terrified the life out of Frisk. Other Frisk was augmenting their appearance in the original's dreams. It was starting to make Frisk lose sleep. They began to dive into their work to avoid having to deal with the other, but that only added to their stress.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Cold water across the face sounded like heaven. "I'll be back."

Neither monster tried to stop the human child.

The bathroom was small, but empty. Frisk appreciated this and turned on the faucet for the cold water. The water poured into the sink while Frisk cupped their hands to gather some.

The water felt heavenly on their face. It soothed them a bit and it felt really nice to have all the sweat and grease they had on from the day be washed away like their troubles. Temporarily, yes, more always comes, but for now-

What was that?

Frisk swerved around to carefully scrutinize the area around them. The door was locked, they were sure, but what made that noise?

Frisk's heartbeat increased rapidly. Something was with them. But the door was locked, nobody opened the handle, no windows were in there, and most importantly, Frisk was alone.

" _Not completely."_

Frisk yelped and turned back to the mirror where they were met with the Other's face instead of their own. Frisk no longer had a reflection. The Other Frisk was their reflection. Their eyes were capturing, freezing Frisk to the spot with fear. They moved freely on the other side of the mirror, Frisk not moving. It was like a window with somebody who looked exactly like you on the other side. They could move, but you weren't able to.

They simply studied Frisk and seemed to chuckle. " _You're exactly the same."_

Frisk didn't reply. They couldn't will their lips to move.

The other definitely chuckled this time. " _You're so easy to scare sometimes."_ They rolled their creepy eyes when Frisk didn't say anything again. " _Look, the time for us to_ really _meet is coming soon, thanks to you. You didn't listen to my warning before of Pyrope, so looks like you're gonna have to-"_

"Pyrope?" Frisk found their voice at last and began to feel their legs again. "What about him?"

" _Beware the man with no humanity. I dunno about you, but that bastard has less humanity than me. And that's saying something."_ The child laughed.

"But what does he have to do with anything?" Frisk paused and looked behind them. Could others hear or see this kid? Were they crazy?

" _You'll find out everything soon enough, quit with the questions!"_ They rolled their eyes. " _Geez, I forgot how annoying you can be."_

"How do you even know me?"

" _Again with the questions!"_ The kid groaned and looked back at Frisk. " _Look! I know that you can be a bit dull sometimes, so lemme just say this. I can tell when things are going to shitsville, and I guess you forgot how to sense that too, with your memory wiped_. _But something big is gonna happen and soon."_

"What do you mean?" This was more confusing than scary now. "My memory?"

" _You're focusing on the wrong bits!"_ The child groaned again, close to screaming. They balled their fists in their hair and pulled on the brown strands, fuming. " _Listen, I'll explain everything really soon, but you hafta make sure that nothing goes wrong!"_

"What do you mean!?" Frisk groaned, leaning closer to their 'reflection.' "You're so confusing!"

" _You're so dumb!"_

Somebody knocked on the door loudly. Frisk jumped and looked at the door for a second. "H-hold on!" But when they turned back to the mirror, their eyes were back to brown. They moved their arm up, the reflection copying it. With a sigh, they hopped off the sink that they somehow clambered up on, opened the door, and left. The person didn't pay any attention to them, more focused on their full bladder than anything else

The Other's words followed after them. Frisk was to be sure to make sure nothing happened, but what did they mean by the rest of it? Why did they look so much like them?

It unnerved them as they sat back down at the table with the other two monsters. While they reassured them, that yes, they were fine, they really weren't. It felt like Frisk was being watched now. It was a lot harder to listen to Sans as he joked along, causing laughter erupt all around them. It was a lot harder to smile at all now.

Once he was done, people applauded him like they would for an actual famous, well known, comedian. He seemed to be really happy with that and the child could just see the stars shining in his eye sockets. He was gleaming with pride and was soaking it in. And by the way that a few employers were pulling out their phones right after he was done, Frisk didn't doubt that he had a career going for him soon. Papyrus groaned that he would have a big head about this for the next few weeks, but Frisk shrugged.

At least one of them would be happy.

Sans had come back over to the table, after stopping at a few to chat with his audience, smiling like it was the only thing he knew to do. Undyne and Papyrus began to talk to him about it all, how funny he was, how it made Papyrus so proud, even Undyne said that she would love to see more of it in the future. Sans beamed at all of the compliments and chuckled a thanks.

They all turned to Frisk when they didn't say anything. They didn't even realize that Sans had come back to the table. They were thinking everything over. Why would something happen? Who _was_ that kid? And why was Pyrope involved in this? How? Too many questions rolled through their head to answer any of them, or even think it over.

"frisk, did you not like it, buddy?"

Frisk, who jumped a little when their name was spoken, blinked rapidly. "O-oh. Yeah. It was funny."

Sans didn't look all that convinced.

"Don't mind the punk," Undyne intervened before he was too put off. "They've been acting weird all night. I just chalked it up with being human, you can never really tell what they're feeling, am I right?" Undyne chuckled again to herself, Papyrus jumping in and trying to agree but at the same time defend. But Sans didn't reply. If anything, his face grew a bit more forced as he smiled.

He could tell something was wrong.

He ordered some fries for the kid, since they haven't eaten yet, and sat down next to them. He asked if they were okay quietly but they didn't answer him. His worry grew more.

When the fries came, Grillby brought out two bottles of ketchup. He smiled at everyone present at the table and set the fries down in front of Frisk, along with a half full bottle of ketchup. Sans himself got his own full bottle. The flame monster flashed them a thumbs up as a compliment on the show and went back to the bar. Sans seemed happy enough at that and popped open his bottle, claiming it was the best reward for his performance (minus, of course, the business cards he received from the men earlier).

As they began to eat, conversations were attempted. As the short meal went on, they stopped completely. Or, at least, with Frisk. They stopped replying or engaging in the conversation, saying that they were worried about the next day when they had to go back to their duties, but their friends reassured them that it was going to be "A-OKAY." Nobody really wanted to comment on how they didn't believe it. But they didn't, so it was quiet-time for Frisk.

Half way through the meal, Frisk was interrupted by a couple of drunk humans. They had stumbled over to their table and began to compliment Sans on his act. He chuckled and said thanks, loving the attention he was getting from it. One of the humans began to pick fries off of Frisk's plate. They scrunched their eyebrows together and looked up at the paid, irritated, but not saying anything to stop it.

The monsters did and mentioned that he should buy his own food if he was hungry.

"But...sharin' is carin', 'ight?" The man stumbled a bit, despite just standing in one spot. Frisk felt a bit nervous at this. "'nd I don' 'av 'nymore moneeey," he laughed as if Sans told him another joke, finding his empty wallet amusing.

The monsters shared an anxious look, agreeing with Frisk's nervousness.

"ER, HUMANS, WHY NOT GO TALK TO THE NICE MONSTER BEHIND THE COUNTER? HE IS AN EXCELLENT HOST AND WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO DEAL OR, UH, HELP YOU!"

"We 'alread get drinks!" The other one laughed. To prove his point, he held up his drink and sent some of it flying, splashing Frisk and Undyne a bit.

"Alright, maybe you DON'T need drinks or food or WHATEVER, but you NEED TO LEAVE!" Undyne slammed her clenched fists on the table and turned to the humans with menace in her voice.

"Whoooooa, 'alm down, fi-fi-fisshy!" The first one laughed and lowered his friend's arm when it wasn't put down. "'e're jus' 'ere 'or a gud time."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?"

Sans stood up and stepped in front of the table, blocking their view. He raised his hands when they jumped slightly, shrugging innocently. "why don't you leave before trouble comes?" He looked at them up and down, studying them. "you should probably steer clear of those drinks too."

"We're ash sober ash 'm gonna git. And nuffink I - wait wait wait - nuffink _you_ can do 'boutit." The second chuckled and stepped forward a bit before pushing Sans into the table. "Momser."

Everybody at the table gasped and their hearts stopped for a second. They all knew that the shorter skeleton didn't have as much health as the others and were seriously worried he got hurt. Which added more distress onto Frisk's shoulders. How did they know that he had low health?

"OH THAT DOES IT!" Undyne jumped on the table, snapping Frisk back to the present situation. "GET OUTTA HERE OR I'LL PUMMEL YOU!"

By now the entire bar was watching, Grillby had stepped around the counter to help out if he was needed. Frisk felt their nerves pick back up. This was bad, this was really, really bad.

"Fight me!" One guy chuckled, unaware of the current situation he was in. "Wat're YOU gonnado aboutit?"

"UNDYNE, STOP!" Papyrus stood up quickly and wrapped his arms around his friend, still on the table growling. "IT'S NOT WORTH HURTING HUMANS! JUST FORGET ABOUT THESE DUMMIES!"

The second one chuckled again and sipped at his drink, pausing when he heard the minor insult. "Heeeey, 'snot nic to ca' me a du-dmmy." He slurred, not realizing he mispronounced half his sentence. In vengeance, he threw his drink at Papyrus.

Time stopped. The drink had bounced harmlessly off of the taller skeleton, but it still caused a huge effect. The drink spilled all down his chest, on top of Undyne, and dripped onto the table. The bar was completely silent for a few seconds, nobody moving or saying anything. Papyrus tried his best not to get upset, it was pretty bad when he got angry and he always felt bad after, but the other three weren't exactly sharing his viewpoint. The two drunk men seemed to realize that they fucked up because they stilled and said nothing either.

"oooh, now you're gonna have a bad time." Frisk turned and saw Sans's bracelet fall to the floor harmlessly. Before they could say anything, before they were able to stop Sans from triggering the cards falling into place, his eye glowed brightly with magical flames flickering out of his socket. He lifted his hand, now covered in blue, and threw the two men back into the wall.

There was a sickening snap in the air. One of the men screamed and grabbed his shoulder. Frisk began to shake. "MY 'HOLDAR!" He roared, holding his shoulder in pain. He rolled on the floor, crying. The other one was watching him in horror. He pointed up to Sans, still glowing brightly, screaming that he was a monster.

Oh.

Oh no.

Please, no.

President Coltran's words echoed in their mind. " _So long as no human is harmed by a monster, they will be fine and treated like a normal citizen."_

What happened when they were harmed though!? Frisk was now scared. They didn't like this at all. They really didn't want this to happen. They didn't want this to happen, please, please, no. Sans had just used magic to harm a human, they weren't even suppose to be able to use their magic, let alone use it to do THIS!

"Sans, stop!" Frisk leaped out of their seat and grabbed his arm in a death grip. Their heart was hammering more than ever now and tears filled their eyes. "Stop!"

Without looking, Frisk could feel what seemed like hundreds of pairs of eyes on them. The entire bar.

People began to talk, some in hushed voices, others in louder volumes, ordering people to call the cops. Frisk took deep breaths, taking note of everything like that was going on vaguely. The more important thing that their brain was focusing on was the thing their shaking hands were grabbing so tightly.

Sans had tensed to the point he felt like he was made wood instead of bone-nothing moved. Frisk didn't open their eyes, they didn't need to see his face now. They didn't want to see his expression, not now when he realized what he had done. Frisk had explained the president's term or conditions. Not when he realized he fucked everything up.

None of the four moved except for Frisk, who was crying openly now.


	17. The One with Chara

Not for the first time, Frisk was upset in more than one way. They were frustrated that they weren't able to stop Sans before something happened. They were mad that it had happened in front of people, but also embarrassed that they were part of the reason that it even happened. Shock was barely a word that would register in their mind when all of this was over. They were terrified that they wouldn't be able to stop whatever was coming to them in terms of the law. Police had shown up to the scene of the fight within minutes and took all the monsters into questioning, despite the humans' pleads.

To Frisk's relief (and surprise), they weren't the only one who tried to stand up for the other monsters. Many had tried to tell the police that some of the monsters weren't at fault and were simple bystanders. In reality, it was only Sans who should be taken in. (Even if that were the case, Frisk would've done everything in their power to try and stop it.) The police wouldn't hear of it, frustratingly, and demanded that all needed to be questioned. "For the good of the people, and for the safety of the citizens, we must have all the monsters be taken in to get a clear understanding." When the people inside the bar protested, the police threatened to take the other humans in if they were such supporters of it.

It could be an entire league of monster/human peace group! Oh no! (Sans always said that sarcasm wasn't funny and would get upset at them for using it, especially when a situation like this would occur, but Frisk couldn't give two damns at the time. Besides, Sans also said he would obey the human laws set for the monsters and look where that wound up.)

Frisk wasn't going to take this bullshit sitting down doing nothing while their family was taken in over something as dumb as a bar fight. Those had to have happen all the time, and police get involved, sure. But did they arrest an entire whole or just a few? Frisk liked to believe that they would only arrest a few, but had a feeling that more often than not, it was the whole to get the clear story. But they didn't want to think reasonably, they were angry and frustrated. Irritated to the point of standing up for their friends even. Why did it always have to be their friends? Why them? The world was becoming unfair and Frisk didn't want to be an "innocent" bystander who sees everything and does nothing.

No.

Despite their monster friends' look of warning (and pleading), Frisk raised their hand and told the officers that were there that they would always support the monsters. To everybody's surprise as well, two more people raised their hands as well. They didn't look very happy and were sitting with a couple of monsters earlier. Frisk saw them when they were walking to the bathroom earlier….before everything went downhill.

The police had begun to round everybody up and take them outside. No handcuffs were taken out yet, but the police did try to handcuff Sans. (It didn't work, his bare bones were too small to fit even the smallest cuffing. He laughed and made a few half hearted jokes, but most of the time he seemed distant. Or at the very least, upset. Frisk could guess why, it wasn't very hard to do so, but was still concerned with their friend, along with about twenty or so more things to be upset over.) For the most part, the monsters were very agreeable and did what they were told, when they were told. All of them looked defeated, even lost or upset.

The police did, however, were not lost. They had full control over what was going on and acted as such. Those in blue, shadowed by the red and blue lights, began to make calls to different people, locations, whatever they called to when they had something like this. Frisk wasn't really in a good mood to decipher what was going on, they were trying to get things to stop for a second so they could think more clearly. It was starting to give them a headache-one that they didn't need on top of everything else.

Yet, when the other two humans (who looked a lot like brothers) joined Frisk with the police trailing not too far behind them, Frisk knew that it was over. It would get better than this, hopefully, things normally either swung one way or the other for the ambassador. Until then they would just have to wait….with a shiny new accessory on. They were heavier than Frisk expected, biting into their soft skin. The chain in the middle forced Frisk to keep their hands close together in a way that was annoying at the very least.

The police, once the three humans were cuffed, began to lead Frisk to a squad car. It was the standard cop car, one with lights on top, a cage in the backseat so the passengers inside couldn't harm the police in the front, computers and other impressive technology in the front as well. The door on the inside didn't have a handle or a window lever, which made sense after thinking about it. How else would they keep the criminals inside?

….Criminal.

Is that what Frisk was now? They didn't want to think so, they were just sticking up for what was right. Teachers had taught Frisk about many human figures who were arrested for doing what they believed was right. Many names popped up inside the child's head and Frisk focused on that. The list made them calm down a little, but not by much. After all, how was any of this really comforting? Today had just gone from bad to worse. Now, please don't think that Frisk was often upset, but today was just something that was meant to be. The child was under a ton of stress and this didn't help anything. They hated being in a bad mood like this, feeling like nothing was ever going to get better.

A look outside the window revealed just that. The monsters were being lead away as well, Papyrus next to Sans, who was still looking like a deflated balloon made of bones. Frisk sighed, resting their head against the window.

When they saw the monsters' faces looking so scared, blank, even lost, in the flashing blue and red lights outside, something shifted in their vision. Frisk suddenly felt really heavy, maybe from exhaustion? Their head, still resting of the window, felt like a bowling ball. They shut their eyes and groaned slightly. This was too much! Then, just like a gift from god, it was all over. Frisk felt like they were just going to sleep, but knew better than to think that.

 _They opened their eyes and saw nothing. They were filled and surrounded by darkness. The monster friends were in front of them, faces blurred out. They were mumbling something across the distance, more of it without their usual peppiness. Frisk raised their hand and through the distance, called their names. The monsters barely responded. Frisk, having been with them for almost a year at this point, began to make jokes and puns, daring to fight the other and even talked about how anime was a real thing and they were glad to have senpai notice them. Nothing really moved._

 _It was as if Frisk was now outside of their own body. Everything was swirled together, colors, words, anything that moved seemed to echo gently around them. It reminded Frisk of being underwater when it was raining, something was humming somewhere like a waterfall. There wasn't anything that Frisk really felt, besides the obvious panic, and even was beginning to ebb away. A warm sensation began to fill Frisk's chest and unhurriedly the stabbing fear went away, as if being pushed through a straw._

 _Then, as soon as Frisk was taken into this weird world of warmth, the feeling of air slowly began to take part again. Frisk was now able to feel the wind grab at their skin, gentle but firm, and hear the leaves rattling around them. Frisk still had their eyes closed, but they were able to feel the gravel under their bare feet. They were able to hear the quiet chirps of crickets in the distance. This was it, they were sure. This was the place where the plants had chased them, this was where they had met the mirrored version of themselves._

 _Across the field, the wind began to whisper, calling Frisk over to them softly, as if baiting a dog._

 _"I need to talk to you."_

 _Frisk opened their eyes._

 _Across the field, just as the wind was waiting, was the other version of themselves. Frisk barely registered the small amount of paranoia dripping into their system, not caring if they were scared of not. They needed to find out what was going on and if this was the way to do it, then fine. Scared of not, the human child was going to do this if it killed them. With a deep breath, Frisk took off at a jog, hoping silently that they wouldn't be killed._

 _They had a similar haircut as Frisk, a bit longer, but very much alike. They were...almost a reflection actually. The only difference was their shirt, and even that was frighteningly child wore a green sweater, almost to that of what they wore when they were younger. Instead of it being blue and purple, they had a green and yellow striped chest. The fabric looked almost run down, frizzly and small holes everywhere on the sweater. It had definitely seen better days, but it was obvious that it was loved and taken care of. Frisk briefly wondered if they had gotten it from somebody else, like a hand-me-down, but dismissed the thought. They would worry about a shirt later, right now they were needing to take to the reflected being._

 _"Do you remember my name?"_

 _Frisk blinked. It was...there, almost but just out of reach._

 _The reflection tsked, as if unimpressed with what they saw. "Chara. Remember it this time."_

 _Frisk didn't hesitate and said the name, the double syllable name tasting like a curse word; bittery sweet. "Who are you, Chara?"_

 _The person sighed and crossed their arms, looking across the darkened field. The moon was brighter tonight than normal, so it was a bit lighter out in the fields, but was still very dark. It was hard to even see what color eyes Chara had. After a minute of silence, Chara turned to Frisk and spoke._

 _"I'm the first child."_

 _Chara explained what their story was. How they were the first human to fall into the mountain, how the Dreemurrs had taken them in, and how they died. Frisk was astounded by the story, but could sense the evil within them. They had tried to kill Asgore? And then got sick themselves? Was it actually an illness or was it something...else?_

 _It didn't end there. After Chara had died, along with Asriel, they explained something else. When Asriel had combined with Chara's soul to take them back to the humans, he wasn't the only one to receive the magic. Apparently, this wasn't a very known fact. When a monster and human soul combine, they need to reach homeostasis in their determination and magic levels. Through this, Chara's soul had absorbed some of Asriel's magic, especially when he was killed. In his weakest moment, Chara took the rest of his magic, effectively ending him. In the end, Chara was the one who had taken Asriel's life._

 _With this new found magic, and being a "ghost," Chara was able to take control of humans if they ever fell into the mountain. There were seven others after Chara, but most of them weren't even worth Chara's time. They all died relatively soon, not even determination, but Frisk was different. Frisk's determination levels were off the chart, making them the strongest child to have fallen._

 _"Hold on, I never fell into the mountain." Frisk stopped Chara, who looked irritated._

 _"I'm getting to that, just wait."_

 _But Frisk was able to shake off Chara. If they killed somebody, they always would force Chara to use their magic to turn back time so they could have a chance of setting things right. Eventually, once the barrier was broken, at long last, Chara made them decide. The first child had grown angry, they didn't like how much love Frisk had gained through their friends, especially Toriel and Asgore. They didn't like how happy Frisk had grown, especially in that specific timeline. Every timeline the love just kept getting stronger and stronger. Finally, Chara forced them to decide. They could either go back and do it all again, or they would have to die._

 _"Why?" Frisk seemed to be shocked. "Why would you make me do that?"_

 _"Because!" Chara snapped and turned to Frisk, betrayal on their face. "Because it's not fair that you got so much love from your friends, while I only got LOVE when I did my runs." They rubbed their eyes furiously, trying to get rid of whatever was making them so upset. "I didn't want you to leave! I was jealous, and I wanted you to feel what I felt all the time. And then you decide to kill yourself so you wouldn't have to make everybody else upset!_

 _"Well I got news for you, Frisk!" They spat the name out, like a curse. "You made them so upset! You fucked up! You made us all upset!" A sharp glare was given to Frisk, Chara baring their teeth. "_ Damn _you, Frisk."_

 _Frisk blinked, startled. "I never died...? I mean. Yeah, sure, I was depressed before I met the monsters at my school, but-"_

 _"Ugh, you're so dumb sometimes. Look, when I told you to either reset again or kill yourself, that's what you did. Then I brought you back, changed your memory so you wouldn't remember, had you go back to your normal life so you wouldn't be happy."_

 _A moment of silence, minus the heavy breathing from Chara, reigned over the two humans. Finally, Frisk spoke up. "That does explain why I don't remember anything….Why my parents got so upset at me out of the random, how I fell behind...that explains a lot actually." Frisk glanced up at the smirking child._

 _"Now you're finally starting to see."_

 _"..." Frisk sighed, the pieces were starting to form together. "Those dreams I see at night, like a show that's all staticy, my reflection moving on it's own...you, I guess, is that all because-?"_

 _"That would be me again. I wanted you to come back and maybe I could get you to kill the monsters on the surface." Chara shrugged. "I thought it was a good idea at the time, but it kinda turned south. When I tried to do a run with you up here, my magic was too low. I guess bringing you back from the dead and...editing your memory was too much." Chara sighed. "But your memories are coming back apparently, showing how low it is."_

 _"Your magic is too low."_

 _"That_ is _what I said, dummy." A roll of the eyes._

 _Frisk looked down at the field. Was there any animals that lived there? There were now crickets, still singing in the distance, but other than that no movements._

 _"But...I met the monsters. I befriended them again. They adopted me and-"_

 _"I know what happened!" Chara snarled and turned to Frisk with an angry expression on their face. "I know that you got your damned perfect ending!"_

 _"This isn't perfect," Frisk interrupted gently. "There's almost a war breaking out."_

 _Chara scoffed. "Yeah, well, who's fault is that? If you hadn't stepped in with your 'let's save everything' mood, none of this would have happened. The monsters woulda been on their own and you woulda been just fine."_

 _Frisk shook their head. "Chara, if I had done that, then things would've been worse."_

 _"Yeah, right." Before Frisk could speak again, to try and deter the other from that idea, Chara continued. "Look, I don't care what you really want. You need to know something."_

 _Chara suddenly looked away and clenched their fists. Frisk noted how they were white at the knuckles and knew that something was up, if they were so 'evil' and they were doing this…._

 _"Even if my fami-...if the Dreemurrs and everybody else ruined my life, I don't want to see them die at another human's hands. I hate humans with a passion like no other." Chara turned to Frisk. "I climbed up that mountain to run away from my village. I hated what they did, how they treated me. I was nothing but a child. But with the monsters, they actually loved me, despite what I did. I betcha if mom could see me now, she'd still love me." Another scoff from Chara. They were quite common apparently. "But now they're being treated exactly how I didn't want them to." Frisk noticed a shift in Chara's personality. Like something they didn't want to admit was about to come out._

 _"This stays between us, but….There was another reason that I had you reset so many times."_

 _"You didn't want them to get out, did you?"_

 _A moment of silence. Then another. Frisk was beginning to think that Chara wasn't going to say anything when they muttered something under their breath. While it couldn't be word for word what Frisk heard, it was something about changing them? Frisk hoped they meant that Frisk was helping Chara change into a better person. The thought of that filled them with determination like no other._

 _Chara shifted and looked at Frisk with such a serious expression that they had to wonder if the other had a mirror to practice that face. "Look, Frisk. I know I did bad things. Do I regret it?" A half shoulder shrug this time. "Hell if I know. But bad things, a lot worse than what I did, are going to happen really, really soon. Do you remember what I said about Pyrope?"_

 _Frisk nodded. It was hard to forget something that haunted you._

 _"He's up to something. I can't tell you what, I can only really follow you around if I muster enough energy. But if you take one thing away from this conversation, it has to be this."_

 _The breeze blew by the two of them and Chara turned back, watching a tree in the distance. The leaves on it were shaking, Frisk could see the leaves from their do dance moves more stylish than what they were ever capable of doing._

 _"Frisk, there's gonna come a time when you need to make a decision. If you stop something evil, but promises to come back, the best way to deal with that to protect what's important to you is to kill it. Make sure it never comes back. That's why," Chara turned back again to look at Frisk. "When the time comes, and you'll know when it does, you need to kill Jerry Pyrope."_

Frisk jolted. Like the feeling you get when you're dreaming then something small happens, a fall down the stairs, a trip, something unexpected happens, and you suddenly are awake with your heart beating like crazy, sleep far from your mind. Some say that it's your death in an alternate universe, but Frisk never really knew much about those. It was just a weird idea to them.

The scent of leather seats wasn't filling their nose anymore. If anything, now it smelt more like cleaning supplies and a hint of sweat. Frisk cracked open their sore eyes, remember Chara's request that still chilled them to the bone. The thought of it was enough to make them close their eyes, trying to get it out of their head. They eventually heard muffled voices behind the wall, and opened their eyes once more.

As they sat up, a hand reached up and rubbed the dirt and sleep away. The other eye observed the surrounding area that Frisk now was in. They were in a room that looked almost like a lobby in a hotel. Fancy, but still furniture was placed in a decorative format around the room. The windows were bright, meaning it must've been morning now, and light music filled the air. They sat up on the couch they were sitting on and glanced around the room with suspicion now in their eyes.

Frisk was sure that they were taken in by cops before they saw Chara, why would-

They froze, their hand still rubbing their eye.

They weren't in handcuffs anymore. They didn't have any cops near them, nor monsters. Why were they alone? Where were they?!

A door opened behind the couch they were currently sprawled across on. A few business looking men filed out, some nodding politely to Frisk. Frisk sat up in their seat a bit more and blinked at the sight of the men. What were they doing here?

"Uh, excuse me-" Frisk reached out, calling to them as they shuffled out of the room. "Wait!"

"Frisk."

The child stopped. They knew that voice. They hadn't heard it in so long it felt like a lifetime ago. Was it really only a short period of time since they had heard that voice? And usually it was so full of happiness, it was great. But now, it was almost dull, full of regret.

Frisk turned sharply and smiled at the mayor of the city. He was standing in the doorway, a cool cowboy hat on his head. The normal smile on his face wasn't there, nor was a cup of ice tea or his sunflower seeds, those items as Frisk had learned, had quickly become some of his bare necessities. He didn't have them only if something had happened, something that clearly was bad. Something, Frisk feared, involving the monsters.

"C'mon in, we need ta hav' a talk." He grumbled, and turned back into the room he just walked out of, a room with a long stretched table with a window wall looking over the city. (Seriously, where were they?!) Frisk followed with a brief moment of hesitation. "Now, I bet that you're wonderin' how in the heck ya got here. Well, I had received word of what happened last night an' could barely stand the thought of it! I posted your bail an' got ya outta there, we can't have an ambassador in there, never mind a younglin' like yourself."

"Thanks, but...Where are we?" Frisk awkwardly sat down next to the mayor at his request. There was a plate of doughnuts on the table, Frisk's favorite, but they weren't hungry. They needed a lot more information about what the hell was going on before they did anything else. "And what happened to my friends?"

"Well, we're at this hotel I'm stayin' at. I have a few things to lookit an' I wanted a place close by so I wouldn't hafta jump around like a blind jack-rabbit in the summer." He smiled slightly to himself, enjoying his southern accent. But the smile soon faded. "But as for your friends, I can't tell you that.

"Now why you're here with me. I know ya just saw those men walk outta here, most lookin' all classy-like. Those are some of Pyrope's men, ya see. We hadta make a deal with a lot of important people an' they were only a few of the many." He shook his head. "That monster deal last night has been a thorn in my side all day long. I'm as tired an' worn out as a donkey without any shoes on.

"But! Don't let that stop me, why, I gotta tell ya something, Frisk. An' I'm only doin' it 'cause you're my friend." He gave a short smile. "There's no way of sayin' this with ease, so I'm gonna straight out say it." He took a moment to take a breath and look out at the city, one so new to Frisk, and out in the distance at the small forest that covered the hills. If you squinted, you could almost see a glint of something in the very, very, far distance, but Frisk dismissed it with ease. The conversation now was more important.

"The public has agreed, with what happened last night, they don' want monsters roamin' around. An' this morning, a bunch of people met. I'm sorry, Frisk, I really am, but even the president called in. He was mad as a devil, he was, but he said that because the monster hurt the human-"

"But it wasn't his fault! He was only trying to defend us-"

"Frisk, kiddo," Frisk winced at the nickname. That was Sans's nickname for them, and nobody else should ever use it. "Lookit it like this. Two guys were harassin' ya, but didn' do any physical damage 'cept spill some drink on ya. Then the monster dislocated his shoulder for it. Now, if this Sans fella was human, he'd probably be arrested with charges. But because he's a monster with magic, we can' take much risks. 'Specially since they broke the agreement."

Frisk felt some tears prick at their eyes. This wasn't fair! This was far from fair!

….But deep down the mayor's words made some sense. It did seem like he was gonna have a hard time out of this one, one probably with friends keeping him afloat above his guilt. As for the humans, they'll be pissed as hell off for sure. They open their arms (somewhat forced) to let monsters come in and then one gets hurt because he spilled his drink?

Maybe it wasn't very deep down where Frisk understood what the mayor was saying. After all, it wasn't really the man's fault was it? He was pretty drunk to begin with, and he really enjoyed Sans's show. Now he has a dislocated shoulder because one of the monsters broke the law and took off his bracelet. Frisk hated to admit it, but Sans was in the wrong here.

But all the same….

"But they shouldn't punish all the monsters for just Sans's actions. That's not fair to blame the entire group." Frisk sighed and turned their pleading eyes to the mayor. His eyes were like Asgores- full of love and caring for his citizens. And just like Asgore, they had dark bags underneath. "What's gonna happen to them?"

"Well, see, that's what I can't tell ya. I'm not s'pose to let ya know so ya won't go after 'em." The mayor shrugged. "All I can tell ya is that they're bein' taken away from any human city."

"So they're going back to the mountain? Is the barrier gonna be put back up?"

"Frisk…"

"Please, please, you have to tell me! You just have to!"

"Frisk, please, ya know I-"

"There's children, innocent monsters-!"

"Frisk! Listen to me!" The mayor stood and grabbed Frisk's shoulders to stop them from talking. "Now I know ya got your heart set on helpin' out your friends, but, goshdarnit! It's not going to work out. Ya just have to give up your hope 'cause there is none!" His eyes flickered to the door where a lady was drawn in by the yelling. She blinked, slightly hesitant. When she saw Frisk's tear filled eyes, her face softened even further.

"Excuse me," she spoke like a bell, "but is everything okay in here? I heard yelling and now this young boy is crying."

Frisk felt their anger flare as the gender was assigned to them again, but the mayor squeezed their shoulder in reassurance. He was by far, the best human to understand the wants and needs that Frisk deserved. He never questioned their gender, was always there for them, and if he was scared of offending something that Frisk liked, he would ask them gently what he should say, then thank them for understanding and helping him out. If any human could be their father, they would choose this guy.

"'s alright, Jessie," the mayor smiled at his secretary. "'m just breakin' the news to them. Go ahead an' close the door for us on your way out, would ya?"

The secretary, Jessie, nodded with a smile and gently closed the door leading out into the lobby like room. As soon as the door was closed, the mayor turned back to Frisk and huffed a bit of air. "Now listen to me. If you take anythin' out of this conversation, take this."

Chara's words rang in Frisk's ear for a second, the familiar words screaming to them. Was the mayor going to ask that Frisk do the same thing as Chara had?

"I wasn't gonna tell ya where 'em monsters are at when there's folks listenin' in on us. Sorry for playin' ya like a fiddle, Frisk, but listen close 'cause we don' have much time left..."

As it turned out, the president was convinced by Jerry Pyrope to go ahead and imprison all the monsters in an old prison just outside of town. From there, the humans would watch and judge when they would be safe enough-if ever- to be released back out to the public world. Many had argued that it was inhumane and that this wouldn't ever happen, especially in America. People had seemed to forgot the fear of the Japanese in World War Two after Pearl Harbor, how the camps in America were built to keep them in. They seemed to forget the fear of communism in the Cold War. How if you were even rumored to be a communist, it would ruin your entire life. Humans like this think that they weren't at fault for a lot of things, that they would definitely be safe and treat others with respect, but in all honesty, they weren't.

Frisk was starting to see why Chara preferred monsters.

"Frisk, listen. Nothin' is gonna happen to 'em monsters, but they're scared. There's police, members from tons of organizations, hell, there's even civilians patrollin' around there to make sure that nothin' is gonna happen. They're safe."

Frisk nodded. "But they're in prison. They're locked up!"

"It's just to make sure that they're safe enough for the public." He turned to the window and pointed out at the shining glint in the distance, out deep in the woods. "They're right over yonder. Why not go and check up on 'em, see for yourself?"

* * *

Frisk's heart was pounding. Their feet barely touched the ground before they were ripped back up again only to be forced forward to keep going. Frisk lost track of how long, or far, they've run, but it had to have been a while. As soon as the mayor had explained what was going on, they wasted no time in running to see for themselves what this 'prison' really was like. If what the mayor said was true, then there should be a way for Frisk to get in to see what it was like. They were the ambassador, they'd have the right to make sure their family was safe!

As they ran down the side of the road that led to the far off building, the sounds of a truck engine reached Frisk's ears. The child paused in their running to turn and look at the red truck that was driving along the old road Frisk was on. As it got closer to Frisk, the driver began to apply the brakes, making the truck squeal. At first, Frisk considered dodging it and diving into the woods to hide, after all, how many trucks pull up to somebody in the woods with good intentions?

But as the truck slowed, Frisk recognized the person inside the truck through the windshield. In the driver's seat was a young woman, brown hair pulled back up into a ponytail with pink glasses on. She looked different out of her nurse uniform, but Frisk guessed that it was probably normal for her to dress like she was in a t-shirt and jean shorts.

"Hey, Frisk!" Sarah, the nurse that took care of Frisk at the hospital, stopped completely and rolled down the window. "You heading to the prison up ahead too?"

Frisk blinked, out of breath. "How'd ...you….know?" Frisk asked, panting in between breaths.

"My brother works there. He's one of the guards and invited me for a tour. He knows how much I love the monsters," she smiled and gave Frisk a wink. "Come on, get in!"

Frisk sensed something with Sarah. Something about her seemed to be a little off. Like something was wrong, but she was planning for it. Either way, that determined glint in her eyes sent Frisk a friendly message of not to be afraid; this wasn't going to be bad for you.

With ease, Frisk opened the truck door, jumped in, and thanked Sarah for the ride.


End file.
